Shiranai Ougonjutsu
by Raven Aspen
Summary: Raven is a normal 14 year old girl, but when she and her friend Sakura attempt alchemy, not only do they succeed, the world as they know it changed and now their favorite TV show is a reality. Please read and review, this is a Repost.
1. Chapter 1

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AAAAAHHHHGG!!!! Okay, I aploigize to all the people that suffered my horrible, HORRRIBLE formatting on this story. I really didn't know just how bad it was. So, I went thru and reformatted it, I hope the spacing is better now.

This was my first story, so I didn't really know what I was doing, but I'm learning, and I didn't realize just how much I didn't know what I was doing until people started begging me to put some spacing in because they kept accidentally reading the same line over because they couldn't tell where they were at.

Well, please enjoy, and review. There will be a better story after this.

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I woke one day to a loud explosion outside, followed by countless shouts that I was pretty sure were commands from the Generals and Officers. I sat up for a moment listening to the shouting, hoping that I could make sense of some of it. After a few minuets I got bored and I lay back down with a flop. Staring up at the ceiling I began thinking. Its come, it finally has come. The war has finally spread all the way to us. I thought I would cry and start panicking, but I didn't. For some reason I saw no use in that action. "Hm..." I grinned and as I sat up I thought to my self If this had happened to me a few years back, I would have freaked out. I stretched and decided to get up considering that there was no chance of me going back to sleep with all of that noise out there.

I went downstairs to get a glass of milk and on the counter was a bunch of books and papers with horrible drawings of transmutation circles. Yeah those were mine, my dream spread out on the counter waiting for me to join it again. The moment I started studying Alchemy I knew that it was impossible for it to be real. "Fullmetal Alchemist is just a cartoon" I said in a mocking yet truthful voice. "Sigh and so is Alchemy" I hung my head and shuffled my feet to put the milk away. I took a sip of my milk and began thinking why I was here again? Oh yeah, my mom was a world famous singer, uhg in my dreams. She was more of a Local Legend, but none the less a great singer. We were here because she was on her Jazz tour, and she thought that it would be a good idea to tour in Japan. Damn was she right! A lot of people like Jazz out here, and the fact that she's a red head only add to her stage presents.

So then there's me, her strange 14 year old daughter that believes in Alchemy. I began swirling my milk around then I finished of the last bit of it. Just then there was a gentle knock on the door. I knew that knock had come from small hands which meant it was probably my friend Sakura. I peeped out the blinds and saw a short little girl waiting eagerly for the door to open. I opened it up and said "Hey Sakura!" I stepped out of the way so she could come in.

"Hi how are you Raven?" she said setting down her bag on a stool in front of the counter. Sakura was sort of my Alchemy study partner. She was around 12 years old and sometimes I think that she believes in Alchemy more than me. "Okay," Sakura said pulling out a pack of chalk and a brown paper bag that I was pretty sure had this broken pendant in it that she showed me a few weeks back. Then it dawned on me that day was the day we planed on making our biggest break thru, to use Alchemy. I had been preparing for this for two years.

"Hm..I see you got everything." I said grinning "Yep. Now I'm pretty sure...yeah this is it...well wait..." Sakura went on mumbling as she shuffled thru the brown paper bag. "Uh you need help?" I asked. She continued mumbling what now sounded like she was lightly cursing at the chains she was untangling. "...Nope...I.. Got it! O.K. so you practiced drawing the transmutation circle right?" Sakura said pulling out the rest of the necklace out of the bag. "Yep, and I remember all the ingredients of the pendants metal so don't worry." I said as Sakura handed me a piece of chalk.

"What are you guys doing?" said a voice from the stairs "Uh just trying to draw out the transmutation circle so we can conduct some simple Alchemy" I said hoping that my mom would be cool about it. My mom came into the room obviously dressed to go out somewhere. "Alright well don't loose any limbs, okay?" She said crouching down to kiss me on the forehead. "Sigh Mom that's only with human Transmutation!" I said giving her a kiss on the cheek. "Where are you going anyway?" I finally asked her. "Well I'm just gonna go to grocery store. We're running a little low on food supplies." she said as she grabbed her car keys. "Wait mom you can't go! There's a lot bad stuff going on out there" I said jumping up. "I'll be fine, don't worry." She said smiling sweetly. I was shocked " But mom you could get killed out there! Now we have enough food for now and they said on the news that tomorrow things wouldn't be nearly as bad. Just wait it out please!" I said almost begging. "Okay first of all no one is gonna kill me, okay? I'll be fine. I'll back in an hour so behave" My mom walked out the door, and I stood there wondering if in an hour she would walk back in those doors. Or if that was the last time she would ever be in this house again.

"Don't worry Rae, she'll be fine." Sakura said trying to comfort me. I dipped my head for a moment then I looked up and sat back down on the ground. "Your right, she'll probably be fine. Besides we have something important to do" I said as I finished the Transmutation circle. "Alright, necklace?" I held my hand out to Sakura and she put the broken necklace in my hand. I carefully placed it in the center of the transmutation circle and I sat there for a moment. This is it, I really hope it works I put my hands on the circle. There was a lot of gold light but I continued concentrating as hard as I could. There was a blue flash of light that rendered me unable to see for a second. I looked down in front of my hands and saw the necklace...Good as new...

"ALRIGHT!!" I yelled "Ha Booya!" Sakura said giving me a high five. Suddenly there was a bang on the door. I was about to say who is it but then the door busted down. I instinctively stood up and kept Sakura behind me. There stood a Soldier with a shotgun. I have never been more scared in my life but I thought to myself, _stay sharp don't cower make sure you and Sakura leave this place alive_, the man stood there glaring at me.

I put on the toughest face I could and said, well more like yelled "Hey! Who are you and why the hell are busting in here like-" I was interrupted by two gunshots followed by a scream then a burning pain in my left shoulder. "Uuuuhhh..." Damn this hurt, I've never been shot before. _Man I could die right here_. I grabbed my shoulder and stood my ground, I wasn't about to let him do that to Sakura.

Then I heard another one of those incoherent commands from a General or Officer that managed to get the soldiers attention. Then he lifted the door off the ground and before he put it up he said "Have a good day ma'am" I was so outraged I couldn't see strait "Y-You Bastard!" I screamed at him. I couldn't stand anymore, I fell to my knees. I then crawled over to the wall left of the door and leaned back. "R..Raven?" Sakura said traumatized with a little blood on her. I smiled at her weakly and said "I'll be alright, the last thing I'm gonna do is die here...Nnnygghhh" I grabbed my wound tighter, I couldn't believe it. This the most I have ever bled since I wreaked my bike a few years back.

Sakura sat down next to me with paper towels a few wet wash rags and a big towel. She began washing my wound without saying anything. It burned but the cold water was sort of soothing. She cut a big chunk out of the towel just big enough to wrap around my shoulder "...Thanks, Sakura" I said. Sakura looked up from tying my shoulder and said "..No problem" Just when she finished tying up the towel someone busted in the door again. For a moment all I saw was a blur of someone really big in something solid blue, and someone much smaller obviously wearing red. They both put the door back up in a hurry. The person in red said "Whew, man that was close. What are they tryin' ta kill us?"."Well brother that wouldn't really shock me." The larger one said. Then I realized that the bigger one was in armor and judging by their voices they're both boys...Wait a second here. Turning with his eyes closed towards me the shorter boy says "Aww jeez what did we ever do to them?...Hm?" Just then the boy noticed that I was staring at him in disbelief. _Holy shit! Its Edward Elric_ I thought to myself.

There was quite a silence for a while there as Ed and I stared at each other. "I do not believe this..." I said. Ed looked away and said "sigh Oh boy here we go" He looks over to me seeing that I am staring at him. He got annoyed "WHAT THE THE HELL ARE YOU STARING AT?! YOU GOT A STARING PROBLEM OR SOMETHING?!" I looked away and began "...Well" Ed interrupted me, tipical him still yelling "Look we're sorry that we barged into your home but if you had a bunch of maniacs shooting at you trust me you would do the same!" I was still staring blankly at him because I was still pretty shocked that an anime character was standing right there in front of me...Well, telling me off. We stared at each other again for two seconds then Ed got annoyed again. "GRRRRRR! ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?!" Then I got annoyed, I was sitting there bleeding which he was obviously failed to notice, and he was gonna stand here and yell at me for no reason? Oh this meant war.

"YEAH WELL IT'S KIND OF HARD NOT TO LISTEN TO YOU BECAUSE YOU SO GODDAMNED OBNOXIOUS!!" I didn't realize it but I had been standing up so Ed seemed closer to eye level. Ed sort of looked puzzled possibly by the fact that I had just yelled at him and he wasn't used to that kind of reaction. I wasn't done yet though "And maybe YOU'RE the one who has the problem! Don't go taking it out on me the fact that you're going to be an obnoxious bratty MIDGET FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!!!" Al looked very worried at this point and so did Sakura, they both knew how Ed got whenever hes' called short, or a midget.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A MIDGET HUH?!!?! WHY I OUGHTA..." I interrupted him and said something that I probably would regret for the rest of my life. "Why you outta nothing! You know you can't possibly hit a girl like me!" I'm grinning now, knowing that the most he is capable of doing to me is yell so I decided to have a little fun with this. "GRRRRRRRR. DAMN YOU!!!" Ed yelled getting more riled up by the second.

"Brother, calm down, okay? She's' just trying to get a rise out of you." Al said quietly to Ed. Ed dipped his head fuming. He calmed his self down and when he looked up his eyes fell upon my bandage that obviously needed changed now. "Y-Your bleeding" Ed said, I looked at my shoulder and said "Oh yeah this happened a few minuets ago." Ed looked at me for a moment almost worried, he then said "Wait what you mean a few minuets ago?" Wait a second is this the same guy? I thought. "Um, I don't know about 15 minutes ago. We started fighting and well I kind of forgot all about this" I said pointing to my bandage. Ed and Al looked at each other, Al said "That's a lot of blood for 15 minutes, the bandage is almost completely soaked" Jeez they were right, and this was a towel two!

"Uh, is that a bad thing?" Oh my god could I look anymore stupid, Ed began yelling again "Wha-Of coarse that bad! DO YOU REALIZE HOW MUCH BLOOD YOU'RE LOOSING!?" Al then said "Ed calm down! "Uh where your-" Before he could finish Sakura said "Follow me". Ed and Al looked at each other for a moment then they followed her upstairs and I sat back down on the floor where I was before. I couldn't believe this, Edward Elric and Alphonse Elric were in my house. This had to be a dream I thought to myself, but later I found it wasn't.

:CRASH:BOOM:stomp:stomp: "Oops, sorry." "Aw dammit Al!" "I'm sorry!" "Gah. Its alright, at least you didn't break all of-" "Ed could you please not jinx us". I began to giggle hearing all that was going on upstairs. Damn Ed has some serious mood swings, he's' trying to be sure that I live but it didn't seam like he wanted me to live a few minutes ago. Hmph what a nut.

So could this day get any more weird? First I finally use Alchemy, then I get shot in my left shoulder, and now Ed of all people is putting a bandage on me. Jeez what's next Ed finished tying the bandage and I noticed that he had a bandage on his left arm. I was about to ask him what happened to his arm but Just then MORE people bust in...again...Only this time it was Roy Mustang, Riza Hawkeye, and two soldiers. Before anybody could say anything and before I could stop myself I said "Okay, what the hell is with people busting in my house all of the sudden" Roy ignored me and said "Edward, we've been looking for you" Ed stood up as he said "Yeah, why is that?" Riza quickly responded "We came here because we heard you were having trouble...Hm?" Riza looked at me then over to Sakura who quickly hid behind Al.

I watched Sakura run thinking _Idiot_ "So who is this?" Riza asked "Oh! Uh..." Ed said looking at me. That's when I realized that I never really introduced Sakura or myself. I quickly said "My name is Raven and this- heh, hold on." I stood up walked behind Al who seemed a bit embarrassed and dragged out Sakura who was red in the face now. I pulled her up to where I was standing before and said "...And this is Sakura"

"Heh heh, Hi." said Sakura realizing that it wasn't necessary for her to go hide behind Al. Roy smirked and said "Well I suppose these two girls are here with you Fullmetal?" Ed looked over to Roy and said "Well actually these two girls were already here, sir." While this is going on Riza is staring me down like crazy and it began freaking me out. Finally she said "Your last name wouldn't happen to be Aspen would it?" Before I could say anything Roy said "Lieutenant, you don't possibly think that-" Riza interrupted him "I am only asking" Then I began to think if I said anything I would interrupt "...Um, yes. My last name is Aspen" I said cautiously hoping that I wasn't about to be suspected as a criminal. "Well if that's the case then I'm afraid we may have some bad news." Roy said sadly. Ed began to seem upset as well, I was getting really worried.

Riza began "Earlier there was a woman who was killed who had that same last name." I gasped, my heart sank all the way to the earth's core. "...No..." I said almost in a whisper. "Edward was there but he was alone and outnumbered by a gang..." Looking down at the floor I was in shock "I can't believe it, my mom was killed... by gang members" Ed seemed to become even more tense and I may know the reason. He almost looked like he was bracing himself, like a dog that knew it did something wrong and was waiting for its punishment _Oh Ed you didn't do any thing wrong!_ "I'll have you know we did every thing that we could" Riza said "...Well at least Edward did" I saw what Riza was trying to do, she trying to tell him its okay but he won't listen.

"...I...Tried..." Ed began in a shaky voice "I tried to tell those...stupid damn...soldiers...they wouldn't listen..." That's when I realized Ed was crying. "...They wouldn't...Help me...Those stupid morons wouldn't.. Help...Me" Ed said clenching his fists. "That's why you have a bandage on your arm isn't it." I said to him.

"...You got hurt...trying to fight them off" I began walking over to him until I was right in front of him. I saw part of his face, he still seemed scared but of what? I couldn't think of anything else to say to make him feel better. Then I hugged him not exactly knowing what I was doing. I then said "Thank you, for doing all of that just to save my mom" Then for the first time I finally started crying about my mom. It probably wasn't a good idea to be crying into his arms when he barley knows me. Before I had a chance to pull my self off of him he began hugging me back. Then I found my self crying ever harder, I sort of felt bad but that feeling for some reason didn't last long. At this point everyone was either silent or slightly crying, or baling like Sakura and I were.  
A moment of mourning for my now dead mother, in the arms of my favorite cartoon character.  
Wow, this has been quite an odd day.

End Chapter One


	2. Chapter 2

I began to calm down a bit so I figured I should probably pull myself off of Ed. I stood there in front of him rubbing my eyes when I noticed that I left sort of a wet spot on his shirt. Even though my face was red from crying you could still tell I was blushing. I thought I heard sort of a giggle, then Ed said "It's alright, easily fixed" He clapped his hands together and used Alchemy to dry his shirt out. Then there was quite a silence. The air was full of thoughts it felt like, this was just a moment that required no one to speak. The Roy finally spoke "Raven, are you here with any other guardian besides your mother" That's what the silence was for, they're trying to figure out where to put me in the meantime. "Uh, no I was only here with my mom, sir." I said with respect that I didn't know I was capable of. Roy put his hand on his chin and said "Hmm...No one at central even knows how to take care of a dog, Hughes already has two children, and I am no good with baby sitting." He looked over at Riza and she said "I already have to baby sit you. There's no way I could possibly make time for her" 

They both looked at Ed who's face now wore a look that said 'Aw come on I can't baby-sit! You guys know that's one thing I'm not capable of!' I grinned Roy said "Well, you ARE 14 right? You're a big girl who knows how to take care of her self, right?" Riza, Ed, Al and I all gave him a questionable look. What the hell are you up to Roy? I thought to myself. "Yes but I don't know how to fight, and I barely know how to use alchemy." I said trying to follow up on what he was doing. Roy grinned and said "Yes, well Edward can. Which is why..." He walked over to Ed and I, looked us strait in the eye and said "...Fullmetal, your next assignment is to be this girl's body guard until further notice" 

Both Ed and my jaw dropped, Ed was outraged and I was just plain shocked. "WHAT?!" YOU CAN'T DO THAT!!!" Ed yelled "I have a life you know! She'd only slow us down!" I was a little annoyed by that comment. "It's only for a short period of time-" Roy said "So now I have to watch her 24/7?! And what's this 'Until further notice' crap HUH?!" Ed yelled. "Well, you could teach me how to defend myself so you wouldn't have to watch me absolutely 24/7" I said quietly but still audible. "Me? Teach you?" Ed said "...Buwhahahaha!" I got annoyed at this "Hey you midget I meant it!" Ed stopped laughing and said "Yeah yeah sure I'll teach ya..." I gasped at this with glee _BOOYA!! Edward Elric is gonna teach me how to fight! woo-hoo woo-hoo._

Ed then put his hand on my head and said with an evil grin "And if you ever call me a midget again I'm gonna feed you to pack of rabid chimeras" I wasn't scared even the slightest and I think he knew that "Yeeah whatever..." I said. He'd never actually do something like that. Ed took his hand off my head and turned to face Roy. Roy said "So it's settled then..." Ed looked at me then said "Yeah, it's settled but you better not stick me with her for the rest of my life." Roy grinned "Don't worry, like I said it's only for a short time" He began to leave when Al walked up behind Ed and said "Wow brother being really cool about this, is your automail bothering you or something?" Ed said "Hmm?..Nah, we're not gonna be here for that long. Besides how hard could it be?" In response I said "Very..." Ed looked at me and said "Have you done this before?"

"No, but a body guard is a hard job, think you can handle it shorty?" I said playfully. Ed became slightly annoyed "Hey what did I say about that?" "Not to call you a midget or you'll feed me to a pack of rabid chimeras. Blah blah, yeah yeah I heard you twice the first time." Ed folded his arms and said "Well you certainly didn't- Wait what?" I giggled, and Sakura yelled "HE PASSED!! WOO-hoo!" Ed looking seriously confused now said "Wait a second, what the hell just happened?" I giggled again and began to blush "Well, it's just something that me and Sakura do. I say something weird and if you noticed you pass the test" Ed looking at me like a nut now said "What damn test?" He then looked up at Al and said "Why wasn't I told about this?" "Chill out Ed it's just for fun!" I said sort of laughing. I couldn't believe it but Ed was blushing now realizing that he took the situation a little too seriously. He is rather cute when he's' blushing.

Now I knew this had to be a dream, there is no way in hell I'd be so lucky as to get Edward Elric as a body-guard. If it was a dream I never wanted to wake up, but you can't wake up out of reality. 

That week Ed showed me some simple defense moves from coming out of a grapple to flipping someone just by simply throwing of their center balance. When I first tried that flipping thing I tipped Ed over and he landed on his head. Oops, he was alright though, as you probably know Ed is a pretty tough guy. While all of this is going on, I decided to do some research on what may have happened and why all of this reality bending stuff is happening. I called my friend in America who I wouldn't stop talking about FMA to. I needed a witness that could prove that Ed was really an anime character. As it turned out she had no idea what I was talking about. I even contacted some online friends that were big fans of FMA, they didn't know what I was talking about either. All of the images I had were suddenly gone as well. I didn't understand, was I the only person left on the planet that knew that all of this was just from a show. Whatever happened, I was pretty sure that it was my fault. That day when I successfully used Alchemy something clicked and released something that was absolutely unspeakable. My research was too advanced for trips to a regular library, so I decided to become a State Alchemist. This meant more studying, but I was willing to go thru with it. 

One day Sakura came in while I was studying, she said "Hey Rae you've been reading a lot lately." She seemed very awkward but I knew what she was there for. "Yeah I'm trying to figure out why all this stuff like Edward Elric becoming a real person and there being no record that he was a cartoon, has happened." Sakura didn't look so tense now "I see, is that all?" I hadn't told anyone what I was planning about the whole becoming a state alchemist so I thought I may as well tell her. "Um, no actually. I'm going to become a State Alchemist" Little did I know Ed was standing at the top of the stairs, and heard all of this. "I'm only doing for the research, there maybe a restricted file or two that may give me some clarity." Sakura didn't like this idea at all "Well just because of some research you shouldn't have to throw away your freedom!" I sighed, she continued "Ed could help you, he has access to stuff like that. It would be easier"

"Yeah well Sakura I would like to do it myself." I said to her hoping that she was done. She wasn't gonna give up yet "But Ed is here to help, I'm sure if you told him your situation he would help. Just trust him." She finally said it, trust, something that is very hard to get from me and Ed hadn't fully obtained it. "No, I'm causing him enough trouble as it is. If I bothered him with that well..." I couldn't think of why I shouldn't tell him, then I realized "...I just don't trust him all the way yet." Sakura looked confused, I was pained. I can't believe that I wouldn't even trust my own body-guard how pathetic. "But Raven he's' here to protect you and you can't trust him with some lousy research? He's' guarding your life!" I finally began yelling "I KNOW THAT!!" Sakura looked flustered. "I know its stupid but I personally don't like that fact that I even NEED a body-guard. My mom is dead, and the rules of reality are changing. I'm really freaked out right now and the last thing I need is for you to tell me that I should trust somebody" Sakura was crying now " I just- I just don't want you to have to become a dog of the state for a no good reason"

"No good reason? This is a perfectly good reason now I know that this isn't the best decision but I'm doing what I can right now." Sakura left the room and went upstairs where she saw Ed. Sakura was crying more now and she whispered "Did you hear all of that?" Ed looked down contemplating whether or not he should say yes or no but before he could answer she walked passed him and went into a room shutting the door behind her. 

Ed decided to confront me about all of this. He went down stairs and saw me sitting at the desk with my head in my hands. He was about to say something when I said "You were listening weren't you" There was a silence soon broken when Ed said "So you're planning on become a state alchemist, eh?" I could tell by the tone of his voice that he didn't approve, but I didn't care "Y'know I'd help you but, obviously I haven't earned your trust..." He walked over to the desk and put a book on it "...Here, I think you'll find more use for this book then I will." He began to walk out of the room. I was shocked that he even gave me a book after all of that, I wondered if he was at all hurt by the fact that I wouldn't trust him "...Wait" I said before he left the room. Ed stopped but he didn't turn around. "..Um t-thanks for the book!" I said, it was the only thing I could think of to say. He looked over his shoulder at me with a look on his face that was very strange to me. This look had so much emotion in it was amazing, he looked sad, pained, yet happy. He turned away and said "...No problem.." He walked away.

I sat there staring at the place the boy had been standing in when he gave me that look. Oh man way to go. I turned to my desk where Ed put the book at. I picked it up and began reading it. 

Next day, Lunch time rolled around, and to my surprise Sakura had become the house cook. At least that's what she claimed. I was studying literally 24/7 even at the diner table I was reading a book. "Raven, put the book down and just eat" Sakura said. Still reading the book I said "I can eat and read at the same time" I took a mouthful of food and continued to read. Al seemed to be on Sakura's side in all of this, he said "We haven't seen you for the past few days you've been hiding behind those books, please just put the book down for a while and take a break" They were very encouraging I was about to take their advice when Ed said "Let her study" I would feel like he was sort of defending me but it felt more like he was mocking me. "Brother..?" Al said.

"If she wants to stay behind the book she can. Besides she has to study for the exam to become a state alchemist" I slammed my book shut and said "Well if my studying is causing so much trouble maybe I'll go into the other room. Sakura thanks for making lunch" I stood up and left the room. Everyone was silent, Al and Sakura looked at each other and then looked at Ed. Ed stood up and said "I'll be right back..." He went into the room that I was in and found me shoving my books into an old messenger bag. "Where are you going?" Ed said sounding truly concerned. "I'm going somewhere I can study without getting a whole load of crap" I said as I shoved the last book in the bag. Ed looked confused for a moment "Whoa wait a minute, you're going out?" He said. I slung the bag onto my shoulder and said "Yes as a matter of fact I am" I was about to go out when Ed stepped in front of me

"Wait a second, you're not going anywhere without me you got that? It's too dangerous and I don't know what you think you're going to solve by running out the door-" I interrupted him "Yeah well you don't know a lot of things now don't you..." Ed was obviously outraged by this. I got past him and headed for the door."Y'know your maturity level has just struck an all new low. Congratulations!" He grabbed one of his shoes and attempted to put it on when I opened the door. "Gah! Don't you out there or I'll-" He said hopping on one foot trying to get is shoe on. I turned around and said "Or you'll what? Feed me to a pack of rabid chimeras?" Ed paused for a moment then said "Y- Yes! That! What you said!" I shook my head and closed the door while Ed yelled "No NO! Wait get back here!" The door shut with thunk "Dammit! Whoa!" Ed then fell over.

Al and Sakura heard the yelling and the crash of Ed hitting the floor." Brother are you alright?" Al said franticly "DAMMIT!!STUPID! STUPID BOOT! STUPID GIRL!!" Ed fought with his left boot for a moment then finally got both of his boots and he ran out the door. "GAH! Uh okay which way did that idiot go...HAAWW man! Ooohhh you had better have gone this way!" Ed ran up the street in hope to find the stupid girl that was me. 

I had arrived at a little restaurant and I decided to go in there to study. Man that Ed is an idiot, what possibly could go wrong out here I thought to myself. I sat down and saw some strange men wearing green. They kind of gave me the creeps but I wasn't gonna let them scare me out of there. Now I know that I probably should have let them.

Meanwhile Ed is running as fast as he can and It's not easy with two automail limbs. Ed stopped running for a minute exhausted "Damn. Huff. Where the hell did that girl go." Ed panted heavy for a while." "Are you looking for someone?" somebody asked Ed. Ed hadn't looked up yet to see where the voice was coming from "Yeah, could ya help me?" Ed said then he continued to pant. "Sure, what does the person look like?" Ed said "Yeah, she's' about yeh high, dirty blonde hair, carrying a black bag." Then Ed looked up to see a man staring down at him wearing green. "No.. You? Your the..?" The man had an evil smirk on his face "Yes I do believe we met before, you uh...Were trying to get me to spare that stupid woman's life, correct?" Ed got really angry "WHY YOU!-" 

"Hmm?" I thought I heard Ed's voice so I looked outside to find the men in green had him held down. "GRRRR! LEMME GO!" Ed yelled trying to break free. "Good god will ya calm down boy!" One of the men holding him said. Just then Ed saw me, "Raven! RUN!-" He screamed. "A'right that's it" said the same man before. He pulled a knife out and put it to Ed's neck." So whadya say to me cuttin' your throat out right here and now?" I had to do something "No DON"T DO IT LEAVE HIM ALONE!!" That seemed to get their attention, Ed yelled "What the hell are you still doing here?! Run NOW!" I looked him in the eyes and started to cry. "No Ed. I'm not going to run and leave you here. It's my fault this is happening so I have to fix it!" I really didn't know what I was doing now, I clapped my hands together and put them to the ground. I wanted a weapon that I could use of any kind, I pulled out of the ground a spear. I had never done a lance transmutation before but I guess you can do crazy things when you're trying to save someone.

"Let him go, now." I said pointing the spear at them." Aww so you want us to release you widdle boy fwend huh?" I began to blush and so did Ed. "Calm down fellas I have a special audience with this girl" said the Man that Ed had met before. I began to really feel tough "Who the hell are you and what do want?" The man grinned and said "My name is Naroh and I am the leader of this gang. And I want your life" I began to feel scared "Raven get out of here! He'll kill you go!" Ed yelled at me again. "SHADDAP BOY!" Naroh yelled. He then kicked Ed in the face. "ED!!!" I yelled, I began to cry seeing Ed in pain. But why did I feel that way? Could it be that I...? 

"All I want is to win a fight against you fair and square" said Naroh. "Just so you won't fell so bad when you kill me?" I said in disgust. Naroh smiled "You're a smart little girl aren't you? Listen up, if you don't fight me you can say good bye to your little boy friend here" The man with the knife brought it closer to Ed's throat, and closer until the knife cut into his skin. Blood ran down the knife and his neck. They really would kill him. "Don't worry about me, just run!" Ed said. I stared then I said "No Ed, I won't let them kill you" I raised the spear in front of me and said "If you want to fight me, Naroh... Here I am"  
"YOU IDIOT WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? RUN! RUN NOW!!" Ed screamed at the top of his lungs.  
Now I really knew I was dead.

End Chapter Two


	3. Chapter 3

I was now shaking, for I was pretty sure that I was gonna die right then and there. Naroh now had a very insane smile on his face which only worsened matters. As scared as I was I refused to let him see any fear, so I stood my ground and looked as tough as I could. Dammit I am so stupid. If I had listened to Ed in the first place none of this would be happening. Ed is gonna die and its all my fault. No, I'm not gonna live with that on my mind for the rest of my life. Naroh stepped closer to me and said "So, you're willing to fight me, eh?" I nodded "Yes if it means you'll let my friend go..." I couldn't believe that I was calling Ed my friend, I barley knew him. Naroh grinned "A'right yer little boyfriend goes free un-harmed IF..." I prepared myself for what he was going to say next "...You win the fight" I continued to shake in fear now visibly.

"Wait a minute, I thought you said that you wouldn't hurt him if I-" Naroh interrupted me "Yes that was if you agreed to fight me." He walked over to Ed and squatted down next to him "I never said anything about letting him go" He said grabbing Ed's face. I stood there thinking Dammit why do people do this crap, what's in it for them? I said finally "Fine, but I have to warn you I'm tougher than I look" Naroh looked amused by my attempt to seem confident.

He drew his katana and said "Well then, let's begin!" He charged forward and swung his sword at me. I couldn't think of anything else to do accept try to block the attack which was probably useless. I lifted the spear horizontally and to my and Naroh's surprise the sword stopped cutting about half way thru the spear. "W-What? But that's impossible!" Naroh yelled. Now I was feeling more confident "I think you need to get that thing sharpened" I said then I kicked him missing is privet and hitting his stomach instead. He charged at me again swinging his sword aiming to slice my head off. I ducked and tripped him, a combo Ed had taught me. Naroh fell on the ground but got up quickly to my surprise. He began swinging at me repeatedly all shots that had barley missed me. He tripped me causing me to fall down on my butt, I was about to jump up when he pointed his sword at me.

"This is it girly, prepare to depart from this world just like your stupid mother did" That was something that he was going to regret for the rest of his life. I wasn't sure what I was doing now, I began looking for a place he my have left open for an attack. Then from the feeling of terror that I was going to die I swung my leg up and it hit Naroh right in the privet. That gave me a chance to get up but as soon as I did Naroh swung his sword up and then trying to dodge it I felt a shooting pain on my right side. I came down to the ground holding my wound when Ed shouted "Raven! Hang on! GRRRR! LET ME GO!!!" I didn't look up to see if he was struggling or not I could just hear it. "Hold still you stupid brat!" I heard one of the men yell.

"Lift your head up so I can see the fear on your face..." Naroh said. I did what he told me realizing that I now had tears in my eyes. He put the sword to my neck "This would have ended quickly if you had just held still" There was no way I was going to make it out of this one, I looked over to Ed who had stopped struggling to look at me with a very scared and sad look on his face. It pained me to see his face like that, I started to cry a bit more now. Man I can't believe this is how it'll end, I can't believe Edward is so sad about it. Well he is sensitive when it comes to things like this.

Naroh now brought the sword closer, to the point where the blade was touching my neck. Feeling the cold metal gave me chills, it was time for me to go and visit my mom I guessed. Just then I heard a click, like someone snapped their fingers really hard. Then I saw a red flash of light and yelling from all of the gang members. Could it be? Then Naroh began backing away I looked over and saw of coarse the Flame Alchemist himself, Roy Mustang. Roy smirked as he watched Naroh cower, then Ed ran over next to me.

"Are you alright? How bad is it?" He said lifting my arm to examine my cut. "Calm down Ed I'm fine" I said, I never expected someone besides my mom making such a fuss over me. I looked up at Roy who was now smiling at us in a very warm way, I said "Now as much as I'd hate to say this but it looks like we owe you one" Roy sort of giggled under his breath then looked over at Naroh with a very cold look. Naroh shaking said "P-Please, I know what I did is wrong! J-Just don't kill me!" Roy looked at Naroh in amusement he then said "Now what makes you think that I'm going to kill you. Your not worth it" Naroh then seemed a bit relieved then he was grabbed by two soldiers "You are under arrest" One of them said. "Yeah we've been tryin' to get you for the past two months" The other said. They took him away.

Roy then said "Fullmetal what are you still doing here?" Ed looked at him confused "Hmm? What do you mean?" Roy sighed and continued "Get this girl back home and clean up that cut" He looked sort of annoyed and said all of that to Ed in a 'What an Idiot' sort of way. Ed blushed, he looked at me and said "Oh! Right!" I couldn't help it I had to laugh. We went home to a lot of worried hugs and questions about what happened. Edward cleaned up my cut which was a lot smaller than I thought because of how much I bled. Another day that I nearly died, second time man if it weren't for Ed and Roy and all of the other new people in my life I would be dead. Yet again, this day has been quite weird.

To be continued...

End Chapter Three

since this chapter was so short (well to me it was) Here's a prologue for the next chapter.

PROLOGUE:

I had just finished telling Sakura what had happened with the gang leader Naroh and how Roy sort of saved our lives. Sakura was truly amazed by the way Roy had saved us. "Do you think I could do that?" she said enthusiastically. "Do what? That flame alchemy thing? Well I don't see why not, but if you wanted to learn anything about it you'd probably have to talk to Roy" I said. Sakura still excited said "Oh okay could you take me to central sometime?" I looked t her for a minute "Uh, sure but you'd have to go with Ed." Sakura stood up and said "Okay I'll go ask him!"

A couple of days later Ed took Sakura to central while I was across the street at the library. I thought it was rather cute that Sakura was so interested in that style of alchemy. I also began to wonder if she was developing a crush on Roy. Roy had given Sakura a pair of the gloves he used, now I wish he didn't. I was writing when I heard Al frantically yelling "FIRE!!!!FIRE! EVERYONE OUT!!!"

End Prologue


	4. Chapter 4

Hearing Al's shout, I ran into the living room "What? What happened?" I yelled, although I wasn't the only one that yelled that. I looked over to see Ed who was looking at me as well. "Don't worry! Everything's fine!" I heard Sakura shout from behind Al. He turned enabling us to see a little red haired girl stomping on a curtain that was on fire. "Uh Sakura, I don't think that working" I said. Sakura looked at me, she looked extremely flustered. "You're right..." She said. Sakura ran into the kitchen. "Wha? What are you doing now?!" Al said following her "Getting a bucket of water! What do you think?!" She said back. "Sakura this is an open fire are sure that's gonna work?" I yelled over the clatter she was making in the kitchen. "Actually if you had listened to me and tried using those gloves outside NONE of this would have happened!" Al yelled.

Lately whenever Sakura and Al "fought" they sounded like an old married couple. It was rather funny, really "Look will ya quit yelling at me I'm flustered enough!" Sakura yelled trying to pick up a large bucket filled to the top with water. "Sakura are you sure you can pick that up?" I said. "Uh, guys? Might wanna hurry things up here!" Ed said looking from the fire to us, I then tried to pick up the bucket of water forgetting that I still have little upper arm strength "Uh...Oh crap I can't pick it up either..." I continued to try at it "Here gimme this..." Ed said grabbing the handle from me and lifting the bucket with little trouble "Jeez, can't you just ask me? I do not understand you women..." He said walking into the living room.

We all followed him in, the fire grew a bit but luckily not much,_ Pft, that's godsend_ I thought. Ed began to tip the bucket "...Careful..." I said quietly, I had an experience with a fire that started in my grandma's oven that when we poured water on it got bigger. The fire fortunately went out as Ed finished dumping the bucket out on it.

"Well then, now that that's out..." Ed said turning to face Sakura "You aren't allowed with those gloves in the house anymore." Sakura blushed "Alright! Fine, I'll take the gloves outside...But what'll I use for target practice?" I smiled "pft Not the curtains that's for sure..." Al sort of giggled and said "Or maybe you'll want to aim for the couch next time? Assuming that you don't listen to Ed or me again" Sakura's face became beet red now "...Shut up you guys..." I could tell that she was fighting back a smile. "Alright then hopefully there won't be anymore yelling about something being on fire..." I said "...Or someone..." Ed said walking past me to go back to what he was doing "...Oh yeah thanks fer that ED..." I shook my head and went back to reading.

Tomorrow was a major day, it was the day that I was going to take the exam so I could become a state alchemist. I was almost done with the over all studying, at this point I was just reviewing to refresh my memory of what I studied a couple of weeks ago. It was very shocking to know that two anime characters were living in my house for almost two weeks now, it feels like its been longer.

I went to bed that night feeling excited and scared. What if I flunk the test, will they give me another chance? I tried to rest for an hour before I finally went to sleep. I woke up feeling a lot better, I sat up and stretched but then paused for a moment Wait a second, my alarm didn't go off? the test started at noon, and it was twenty minutes 'till. "Oh crap!" I ran out of my room and without knocking I ran into the boy's room "ED!! Ed wake up!" Ed groaned and pulled his blanket over his head. I shook him a bit "Ed c'mon its 11:45!" Ed shifted mumbling "...Yeah, and?" I continued to shake him " The test is today at noon. I forgot to set my alarm last night and we have about 15 minutes to get there!" I said hoping he'd remember in time. "...Wait, the test is today?" Ed said sitting up now "Yes! I told you about it last night! What do you have amnesia or something?" Ed didn't answer, he looked at the clock and said as he jumped up "Oh crap..." He ran over to the closet where he grabbed his sleeved black shirt off the floor. "What's going on?" Al asked who was awake now from all of the clatter.

"The test is today and we're really late, Rae go get ready!" Ed said closing the one button on his shirt. I nodded and ran out the room. The next five minute were a race against time to get ready. I got my shoes and jacket on, so did Ed and we were out the door as soon as possible. Running I said "Oh crap we're gonna be so late!!" Ed running along side me said "Yeah well if you had set your alarm in the first place none of this would be happening!"

"Shut up! If I hadn't remembered the test was today we wouldn't ever get there, CONSIDERING YOUR DIAGNOSED WITH AMNOESIA!!!!" I yelled. "#$& WHAT THE HELLS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?! YOU'RE THE ONE WHO FORGOT TO SET YOUR ALARM!!" Ed yelled getting irritated. I looked to my right and saw where we were supposed to be five minutes ago, and we were passing it. "OH CRAP IT'S OVER THERE!" I turned around and crashed into Ed "YOU IDIOT!!" he yelled, I actually fell over. Ed helped me up and we ran to the gates.

They wouldn't let Edward go in with me. Ed began yelling "What?! That's the stupidest damn ru-" I couldn't think of anything else to do accept punch him in the arm "...Ow, what the hell-" I grabbed his face and covered his mouth and said "...Shut...Up..." Ed stopped squirming and I let him go. "Chill out, you can just wait out here or something," Ed looked around skeptically," Don't worry, I doubt anyone's gonna try and kill me in there" I patted him on the shoulder, and then turned to go inside. "Um, good luck..." Ed said. I turned and smiled "Thanks...See you in a bit!" I waved then went into the building.

The test wasn't too difficult but I was still unsure about some questions. The test lasted an hour, and I sort of wondered how bored Ed was. Pft, very. That boy has no patience.

I was right, Ed was sitting under a Sakura tree that was in bloom, poking the grass. "Aw, man this sucks when is she gonna be done..?" He looked to the door, and then looked at his watch. "Not 'till another 30 minutes...Sigh" He threw his head back and flopped against the tree trunk looking up at the little pink blossoms.

Thirty minutes went by and I was pretty sure that I got most of the test right, I hoped. I went out looking around for Ed until I spotted him under a Sakura tree sleeping. It was the cutest and most beautiful thing I had ever seen. There were a few sakura petals on his head and flowing past his nose. If a painter ever saw that they would have their sketch book out in two seconds flat. I sat down next to him, he didn't seem to notice. "...Ed?" I said softly. He opened his eyes and straitened up "...Are you done...?" He asked me rubbing his eyes. What he said was begging for a sarcastic comment but I decided not to. I stood up and said "...Yeah, I'm done. They said expect a letter in a week." Ed looked at his shoulder and saw a bunch of Sakura petals and dusted them off with a sort of violated look on his face.

I looked up at the Sakura's for a moment. I caught one and said "...Sakuras were my mom's favorite flower..." I opened my hand and looked down at the little flower petal. "...She just missed them..." Ed, standing up now, put his hand on my shoulder and smiled at me warmly. I looked at him for a moment, and then I smiled myself. I looked at the Sakura petal and then released it, let it fly away in the wind.

"In the end there really is no happy ending, just new beginnings"  
- Raven of Teen Titans

End Chapter 4


	5. Chapter 5

It has been one tense week for me since I took the state alchemist exam, ever since I have been waiting for the letter that will either say I failed or as Ed keeps saying I'll pass. Once he said "I'll kill them if they don't accept you" he really believes in me, and so does Alphonse and Sakura. Sakura was now officially the flame alchemist of the house.

I woke one day remembering that it had been officially a week since the test, that meant the results came in today. My stomach knotted up, I looked at the clock and saw that it was 3 AM. I tried to go back to sleep but I couldn't, I tried harder but the more I concentrated the more I... Wanted to wet myself? I went to the bathroom then downstairs to get some water and ponder ways to make myself sleep. Maybe I can read for a while, but I don't know about any books I'd get bored with, I finished my water and just when I was tipping the cups contents into my mouth.

"..Raven?" I got so startled that I had to spit my water out in the sink. I turned around to see a very tired Ed, looking at me in confusion and a sort of shock. "...Ed! Jeeze you scared the crap out of me! Don't do that again." I said wiping my mouth. Ed came closer to me, closer than I have ever been to him besides the hugging. I looked into his eyes and my heart began to race, he put his hand on my shoulder and said "You should get some sleep, you might get sick" He had a very concerned look in his eyes as he stared into mine, his eyes looked as if they were pure gold.

Ed smiled, I was still speechless "...Well are ya gonna go to bed or just stand here with a blank look on your face?" he said playfully. "..Oh! Right uh, straight to bed heh heh!" my face was glowing red, and I could tell Ed noticed. He smiled at me again and headed back upstairs, I followed him. Something about that encounter with Ed fully relaxed me, the moment I laid down I fell asleep. As I slept, all I could think about was his eyes. I could see them vividly in my mind. Then my mind traveled back to the time when I fought with Naroh and was willing to die for Ed.

Then it hit me, I have never done that before. I have never been willing to give up my life for someone not nearly as much as I did that day. I think that he may be more to me than just a body guard, Wait, he IS more than a body guard to me, but he doesn't know it. Or does he? He's' always so kind to me, does he like me? He isn't the kind of person that would act fake towards someone, he'd make it very obvious that he wasn't enjoying himself, but then again, "You may think you know everything about someone, but then one day they may do something totally different that they never did before" That quote was from a story I had read when I was 11, I don't even remember the story.

When I got up, I realized that I had slept in, luckily not to much. I went downstairs still thinking about the earlier events with Ed. But honestly, how many people has he given that look before That's when I realized that he really doesn't give many people that look. "Afternoon sleepy head!" Sakura said to me "Are ya hungry?" I rubbed my eyes and said "...Sure" Sakura turned around "Good!" She looked at me for a moment sort of examining me "What?" I said to her. Sakura giggled "...Up late huh? Why exactly?" My mind crossed what happened with Ed "...I woke up in the middle of the night, that's all" Sakura grinned "Y'know you can tell me. The boys are in the back room, they won't be able to here anything, and I won't tell anyone" Sakura got me, besides my mom, she could read me like a bill-board. "Alright fine..." I sat down and took a deep breath "...When I woke up last night..." And I told her what had happened, Sakura gave me an understanding look and said "...You're in love with him..." My face turned red "THAT IS NOT TRUE!" I yelled so loud Al and Ed probably heard it. "Sshh! Do you WANT Ed to hear this?" Sakura whispered loudly. I blushed "...I am not in..Lo." I couldn't say it, "Yeah you say that now, but I am pretty sure that Ed is beginning to like you as well..." I looked at her in disbelief. "..How would YOU know"

She smiled, "...Lets just say, me and Al talk a lot more about this than you two will ever know" I blushed _SAKURA IS GABBING TO AL ABOUT ME POSSIBLY BEING IN- never mind, what's the most that's gonna happen...Ed will know how I feel?...Oh crap_. Sakura giggled as if she heard what I just thought. "...I promise I won't tell Al about any of this, and if Al does find out, he won't tell Ed." I sat there looking at the floor for a moment "...There's just one thing I have to say, last night something about Ed's eyes did something to me. I went straight to sleep after he talked to me, and his eyes..." I stared off into the other room at the thought of how I felt "...They're enchanting aren't they," Sakura said "...Yeah, you are soooo love him" I was about to yell out again but I decided not to. If I did feel that way it would explain a lot.

I heard the front door close, it was Ed getting the mail. He looked through it with little interest until he flipped to one. Ed grinned and looked at me, "...Is that it..?" I said nervously. Ed nodded, I got another knot in my stomach. I stood up and he handed me the letter, this was it the determination if I was to become a state alchemist. I opened the letter and read it, "...It says they want me to go to central today." I continued reading, they didn't tell me if I passed or not. "Hmph... I guess they want to reject me in person." Ed put his hand on my shoulder and said "...Well how soon do they want you to come?" I looked back at the paper and said "No specific time, I'll just go now..." I turned around and went into the living room. Ed followed me, I grabbed and put on my shoes and jacket. "Can we go with?" Sakura asked intently. I looked at Ed, he shrugged "...Yeah, you guys can go with." Sakura hadn't been out of the house besides the back yard in a while and the same for Al, it would be good for all of us to get out of the house.

When we got to Central, I went into the office while Ed, Al, and Sakura waited outside the door. After a few minutes I came out with a blank look on my face, Ed stood up and said "Did you get accepted?" I remained quiet. I turned to him still with the blank look "I...Passed" when I said passed I lifted my right hand and let dangle a Military watch with a big smile on my face. Sakura gasped then ran up to me "Yay! You did it! Go girl!" she squeezed the breath out of me. "Congratulations! We knew you could do it!" Al said to me. Sakura finally let go of me, and I looked to Ed. He smiled "Nice job..." I smiled back "Uh, high five?" I said as I lifted up my left hand. "...Sure." He lifted his right hand and hit it against mine. "YEAH HIGH FIVE!!!!" Sakura attacked me and hit my hand so hard I nearly fell over. When I got my balance again I gave Al a high five. In my head I was doing a jig, _YEAH BOOYA!!! WOOHOO!!! EAT THAT._ I couldn't believe it, I passed and I am now a state alchemist. Ed grabbed my watch from me "Hmm...Its different from mine...Smaller..." I snatched it back from him and said "It's better if its small it matches me...Besides you can't expect ALL of them to be the same." Ed pulled his out and held it next to mine. He was right, his was larger and the chain was different. Ed shrugged and put his away, I did the same. I couldn't be happier then I was then.

Beyond that point I was going to continue my research which I found out has been observed and studied by many people before me. Some people called it "The Unknown Alchemy" or my personal favorite "Shiranai Ougonjutsu" I found out that in 1905 the same thing happened with the reality altering only that person died two seconds after he conducted the transmutation due to an explosion. The cause was the alchemy for some reason reacting to certain chemicals and substances being mixed together often either causing large explosions, sudden death to the user, or the strangest one reality altering. There had been restricted books on the subject that I got access to fortunately. They were written in 1806 and 1807 telling about a very early alchemist who encountered this result. The effects theorized were reality altering, and sudden death. These books I later found were written by the alchemist's friends. Then I found a pattern, 1805, 1905, and it happened to me in 2005. The books written that dated back to 1905 theorized of the reality altering effect that happened in 1805 (As it turned out his name was Christopher Eiselstien) may have been a loop of alchemists getting this result.

They had a good point, each chemical mixture wasn't even slightly related. Another thing that was really disturbing is the name Eiselstien was the last name of someone Ed knew, I decided to not worry about it too much. I took samples of the calk and the floor where I put the transmutation circle was. It was a mixture of the chalk and whatever was in the wood on the floor. I started writing about the things I had found out so that a century from now, someone may find some use for it if they end up with this problem. The only patterns that have found are the effects and the pattern. The chemicals and substances have all been different. One day I had stayed up so late studying and writing I fell asleep and woke up at 12:32 PM. I had a book in my hand and Ed's coat over me. I looked at the book, then my computer which was on stand by. I decided to go back to reading then I heard a knock at the door "I'll get it!" I yelled, I looked out the blinds and saw a Millitary Policeman What could he possibly want? Hmm...Something's not right I opened the door

"...Urgent letter from Central for Edward Elric" The MP said handing me an envelope. "Uh, right. I'll be sure to give it to him" I said taking the envelope. "..Have a good day ma'am.." The MP said turning to leave. I disliked those words more than I knew, considering that they reminded me of the worst day of my life. Well it wasn't necessarily the worst, I mean that was the day I met Edward and Alphonse Elric! I knew a few girls that would have killed to meet them, literally. I found Ed reading in the back room that was kind of a mini library. He was reading one of my mom's books. "Um, Ed?" Ed didn't answer, I had forgotten that whenever he reads he goes in a different world and isn't in the third dimension anymore. I walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder "...Ed?" "Hmm?" Ed looked over at me as if he didn't expect me to be there. "Wow, you're really into that book aren't you?" Ed looked at the book, the said "Well, it's alright I just sort of zone out whenever I'm reading...Is anything wrong?"

I looked at him for a moment then I remembered why I was there " Uh, no! Well at least I hope not..." I handed him the letter "...It's from Central.." Ed looked concerned now, he took the letter then opened it up. He stood there reading it, I was about to leave the room when Ed said "...It's from the Colonel." I had a feeling that this wasn't good "...He says he needs me and Al to report at North HQ.." Ed's voice sort of became quieter as he read on "...But that can't be right" Ed said to himself but I still heard him "..What isn't right?" I said. Ed folded up the letter and said "...He wants us to go to Northern HQ...But he wants us to leave you and Sakura here and they'll send out guards to protect you guys.." I was pretty shocked "..Must be serious" Ed was still looking down "...No, if he wanted me to protect you then he wouldn't trust MP with your life..." He had a point, there's no telling how many soldiers and MPs are criminals.

"Well I guess your right, but none the less he wants me and Al to leave as soon as we got the letter" Ed said opening the letter back up to check if he remembered right. "..Well I guess you'd better tell Alphonse" I said, Ed still looked worried and reluctant to even leave. "...Don't worry, Sakura can set them on fire and I can at least defend myself, thanks to you" I said walking up to him and putting my hand on his shoulder "..We'll be alright!" I smiled as sweetly as I could at him, attempting to make him feel a bit better. Honestly, what could go wrong? "Well, alright.. Hey doya now where Al is?" Ed said walking over to stand in the doorway. "Uh, I think he's in the back yard with Sakura.." I said, "That was where I saw them last anyway." Ed walked out of the room quickly, but I didn't follow. I sat down on the couch in the room and thought for a moment Ed and Al are leaving? Wow, I think I'm gonna miss them. But that's not a bad thing is it? Nah, they'll be back, besides I'm pretty sure that Mustang didn't say anything about Ed no longer being my body guard, Ed would have made it obvious if that was the case. Subtlety isn't exactly Ed's strong side I giggled slightly at that last thought. Just then I heard Ed and Al's voices but I didn't understand what they were saying until I heard Sakura speak.

"...Will you at least have time to eat lunch?" I went out of the back room into the hallway. Just then Ed ran past me saying "...No, it's pretty urgent that we go there." Ed grabbed one of his boots and began putting it on. Al then said "..Sorry," Ed got his last boot on and went to get his coat. "..Well, good luck boys!" I said. "E-Ed won't you need to pack anything?" Ed looked to me and smiled very warmly "..Nah, Northern HQ isn't that far from here, so I'll be fine." Ed's warm smile made me sweat, luckily not visibly. Pulling on his coat Ed said "...I contacted Central and they said they'll send over the soldiers in 30 minutes." Ed opened the door, but he seemed reluctant to leave. He turned and said "You two take care...And don't get your selves in trouble, girls like you have a knack for that kinda thing.." I smiled at this, "Don't worry, we'll try our best.." Sakura walked up next to me and said "Yeah! And if anyone messes with us I'll just set them on fire!" We all sort of giggled then Al said "Yeah that should distract them long enough for you guys to get away." Ed turned towards the door again "...Ready, Al?" Ed said. Al nodded "Mm-hmm!" The two boys turned to us, "..Well, bye for now!" I said "You guys take care too, Ed is a trouble magnet so just be careful..." I was expecting a 'What's that supposed to mean!' from Ed but it never came. "...We will.." Al said. They both went out the door and I said "Uh, don't you want us to send you guys off?" Ed looked at me for a moment, and then said "..No, you guys should stay here those soldiers are gonna be here any minute. Thanks for the offer though!" They walked down the street, I felt sort of sad and worried that something might happen to them. Those two are tough, I doubt they'll get killed. Ed and Al are almost unstoppable, but sometimes they get lucky. Let's just hope they won't need that luck.

Sakura and I decided to sort of spar a bit in the back yard. We heard a sound behind us when Sakura was about to pretend to hit me with fire. I got a serious knot in my stomach, something wasn't right. Sakura began staring at me terrified trying to speak but couldn't. That's when I realized that she wasn't staring at me. I looked behind me thru the corner of my eye and saw a man with a sword getting ready to slice me in half. I ran foreword fearing that he would hit me but he didn't. "Your fast aren't you.." the man said "...Who are you and what the hell do you want?" I said, _Goddammit not again man! I swear Ed is rubbing off on me_ I thought to myself. "..That's big words comin' from a cute little girl like you" The man said. I glared at him "As cute and little as I may be, I'm not a wimp." I was ready to do another lance transmutation like the one I did in the fight with Naroh. What the hell is with these psychos! I thought again. "Well since you asked I guess it's appropriate for you to know who's' gonna kill you. My name is Shinji. The reason why I'm here is to eliminate the both of you."

Sakura grabbed onto my arm in fear, I remained calm "Oh? And why do you want to kill two innocent little girls, Are you doing it cause you want to? Or are you working for someone...?" I said. Shinji grinned, "Well since you want to know so badly, yes I'm working for someone. All of this, the letter from central, your boyfriend havin' to leave was all just a setup to kill all four of you" I got angry "First of all he's NOT my boyfriend! And second of all-" I clapped my hands together and made a spear again this time made of metal. "-Its gonna take more than that to beat us!" Sakura pulled on her gloves from Roy that so happened to be in her pocket and prepared to set anyone who came near on fire. "Hmm..I wonder if Anora is getting this much resistance." Said Shinji quietly. I heard what he said even if he didn't want me to, suddenly I realized that we were surrounded by "soldiers" probably ready to kill us.

"If Anora is trying to kill Ed then your answer is yes, and she may be getting extra." I said. The soldiers looked like a bunch of hungry cats ready to pounce and kill us like mice. "You boys take the little one, the big one's mine" He got his sword ready and charged at me. I dogged his first attack and swung the back of my spear hitting him in the back, he fell to the ground. Sakura got completely surrounded by the "soldiers" who were easily fought away from her with two snaps. "You like that spear don't you." Shinji said to me. I stood up strait holding the spear in my left hand and said "Well I guess they better make my Allias 'The silver spear alchemist!" Shinji got up again so fast I barley saw him. I moved to the left but that was something I shouldn't have done "RAVEN!!!!!" Sakura screamed. I felt cold metal flow thru my left shoulder like a knife thru butter. I moved my right hand to feel my shoulder, and it was gone. I looked to Shinji's sword that was now covered in blood. I looked at my hand and saw it was covered as well. Fearfully I looked down at the ground and there was a pool of blood...with my left arm laying in it. I fell over from the loss of blood and the last thing I remembered was hearing Sakura scream and a flash of red light.

To be continued...

End Chapter Five


	6. Chapter 6

I woke forgetting what happened, all I knew was that I had been badly hurt but in what way? I opened my eyes to see Sakura staring down at me with a very worried look on her face. "...Sakura..What happened...?" I asked, I tried to use my left hand to rub my eyes but that was when I remembered exactly what happened. "Shinji cut off your arm...But now you're okay! I bandaged you up and you aren't bleeding as much" I sat up and looked at her, and then I looked around. "I'm kinda shocked that you even woke up, you lost a ton of blood." Sakura continued. I was confused, not everything had come back to me yet. Ed, where is Ed? Oh that's right, the Colonel- I mean SHINJI. Tricked him and Al to leave town I thought angrily "..You alright?" Sakura asked. I looked to her and said "Yeah, I'm fine just trying to remember everything...Hey where did the rest of the guys go?" Sakura smiled and looked down "Don't worry about them...They're gone now..." I was pretty sure why she was smiling.

_Pft. She probably scared those wimps off_ I thought. "Wait, but what about Shinji? Is he still alive? Did her go to join his comrade where Ed and Al are?!" Sakura's expression completely changed "...Well, once I saw you hit the ground..I-I thought you were dead. I sort of lost control and..." I knew what she was getting at. I shifted to try and see where Shinji was then Sakura grabbed my shoulder. "No..Please don't look...You don't want to see what I've done.." She began to cry. She killed him, but she didn't mean to. "Its alright, you didn't mean it" I said to her. "Am I a bad person?" She said incoherently but I still understood her. "No you're not a bad person." She looked at me thru tear filled eyes, and then hugged me sobbing on my shoulder. She scared off all of Shinji's men by what she did to their leader, I couldn't think of anything else to say. All I knew is that I wanted to find Ed and Al, and I wanted to find them now. Sakura stood up and grabbed two things that were laying on the steps into the house. One was my jacket, which was now mended, and my spear. "You'll need these" Sakura said helping me put on my jacket. She was thinking exactly what I was "Okay, but that train is probably hours away. How are we gonna catch up to it?" Sakura helped me stand up, then she said "I have a plan that's just crazy enough to work. 

Her plan was crazy, literally! Her sister, Matilda, was 17 and an insane race car driver. At least she hopes to be one day, in the meantime she was going to drive and 90 miles an hour to get us caught up with the train. "I'm sure glad you guys asked me for help! this car goes super fast and I'm an excellent driver too" Matilda said speeding around cars. "You do know where we're going, right?" I asked considering we passed the train station. "Pft. Do I know where we're going...Of coarse I do! I'm just taking a certain short cut to the tracks." Matilda said with confidence. She turned the car abruptly into some shrubbery that looked like it had been run over before. "Here we go!!!" Matilda yelled. With a loud thump we were on the train tracks picking up speed.

"Sakura, if we don't make it to that train. I am going to kill you" I said to Sakura, bracing myself with my hand on the ceiling and my foot on the dash-board. "But if we do, you'll spare my life right?" Sakura said to me with a nervous grin on her face. I smirked and said "Yeah, I guess." There was a moment of silence quickly broken by Matilda "So, what happened to yer arm?" I looked to the left side of my body and said "..It's a long story" which was code for 'I don't want to tell you' but Matilda obviously didn't get that code. "Well, I'm sure we have time" She said. Reluctantly I told her about Shinji and everything else about what had happened. Once I finished there was another awkward silence. "So...You like this Ed guy a lot, I take it" Matilda finally said. I began to blush "No! I mean...I-I don't know" The answer was yes, but I couldn't admit it not even to myself. Sakura then tapped me on the shoulder I pointed over to the right. "Look.." It was a train, but I wasn't sure if it was the one we were looking for.

Then I heard a few gunshots followed by a scream from a man who flew out of the window. _Yeah, that's it_ I thought. "Alright, you think you guys can climb onto that thing?" Matilda said. I got up and squatted in the window of the car. I stayed there for a moment, then said "Could you get a bit closer?" Without a word the car drew closer to the train. I managed to grab and climb up to the top of the train, Sakura followed shortly after. Matilda yelled "Good luck to ya guys! And Sakura BE CAREFULL!!" she drove off without another word. I stood up strait and said "Alright, let's do this" We began to run down towards the front.

Meanwhile inside one of the train cars, "So, do you give up?" a woman said. "No way. I'm not gonna be killed by the likes of you!" Ed jumped up and ran towards the woman nearly hitting her with his hand blade. She hit him across the head with her gun and then kicked him in the stomach hard enough to knock him backwards. "BROTHER!!" Al yelled, Ed looked up to see the woman pointing a gun at him ready to fire. Ed continued to look fierce and not back down no matter how scared he was. "Hmph. You're obviously a stubborn brat aren't you? Well not to worry, soon my comrade Shinji will come and-" She was cut off but thumping up above. She shot the gun at the ceiling and the thumping moved franticly about across the entire roof. The thumping stopped and the woman stopped shooting, "What if that was your beloved Shinji, you could have killed him y'know" Ed said. The woman looked at him and back at the ceiling.

Meanwhile outside the very same car, I hung on to the side of the train panting heavily. "Huff. Hokay...That...Was to close" Back inside the car the woman aimed her gun at Ed once more "Oh don't worry, the footsteps were to light. That was probably a 13 or 14 year old whom I assure you is dead now" Ed glared at her, she pulled back the hammer on her gun. "But don't worry, Shinji will be joining us shortly" the woman grinned, Ed grimaced. "Ahem. May I correct you that Shinji won't be joining you" The woman turned around and Ed looked over to try and see who it was. "...Because Shinji has left the building...for good" Sakura said. The woman was outraged "Y-YOU KILLED HIM?!" Ed and Al, totally shocked to even see us, then said "Raven? Sakura?" I shrugged and with a nervous grin I said "Heh heh. Sorry we're late." I looked to the woman and said "So you must be Anora...? Shinji talked about you a little right before HE CUT MY ARM OFF!"

Anora looked amused "And you expect to save your little friends without a left arm? Bwahaha!" I got really pissed, "You think its funny, huh? WELL IS THIS FUNNY?!" I charged forward and managed to stab Anora right in the shoulder. I didn't mean to but I didn't regret it either. Anora stumbled a bit holding her bloody shoulder, "Why you little bitch!" She lifted her gun and shot randomly at me, I got behind something before any of the bullets hit me. When she stopped shooting I came back out, Sakura managed to get past Anora to Roy who was soaking wet and bleeding. Right then one of Anora's men swung their sword which snagged on the left sleeve of my jacket ripping it to reveal a bloody bandage. I dodged his next attack and stabbed him right in the stomach. He fell to the ground and that's when I realized that I had killed him, whoever it was I felt really bad.

_Oh yeah, way to go. No more sharp objects for you,_ I heard Anora pull the gun hammer back "Now its time for you to leave the building...For good" I didn't dare to turn around for I knew this was it. "Leave...Her...ALONE!" Ed yelled. He leg swept Anora, causing her to shoot the gun into the ceiling. Then I turned around to see Anora getting up again. "Not so fast" Roy said, He looked wet still but his gloves were dry. Next to him was Sakura who was ready to snap her fingers at any time. Ed ran over to me "Are you alright?" he asked, looking worried "Yeah I'm fine.." I said to him softly. He looked a my left arm, at least where my left arm was. Anora's gun clicked again, we looked over at her and before we knew it she fired. I couldn't think of anything else to do so I went down to the floor while Ed jumped to the far right. Al then walked right in front of Anora and said "If you hurt, or try to hurt my brother or my friends again. Then you'll have to answer to me" I could tell by the tone of his voice that Al wasn't to happy right now That's an understatement, he's angry. REEEAAAALLLY angry. After that Anora looked pretty scared and she turned herself in. Man, Al really got to her but he can be pretty scary when he wants to be. 

The soldiers took Anora and her men to the train car in the back, with my one hand on my hip I said "Well, at least that's over with...Whoa!" Just then Ed grabbed me and hugged me. He held me so tight I thought that he would never let go, "...I'm so sorry that all of this happened." He said. He then gently put his hand on my head, I began to hug him back and said "It's alright, you didn't know and neither did I. There wasn't anything we could really do" My eyes began to fill with tears but my voice remained steady. "No I should have-" Ed began, I cut him off "Ed its okay! Shinji and Anora somehow knew how loyal you are and used that against you, and that isn't a weakness either Ed. We all are okay now, some of us are not all together and a bit beat up but we're alive. Aren't we?" I could almost feel Ed begin to smile, Al and Sakura too.

"She's right, we're at least alive" Al said. Roy smiled "So Fullmetal, what do you plan on doing now?" Ed let go of me and stepped away, looking at Roy wondering what he meant. "Sigh. The girl is missing an arm." Ed looked at me and blushed "Oh! Ah, well we could go to Resembool. It's a little off coarse of this train but we could pull it off" Roy looked at Ed for a minute frowning, Ed smiled at him nervously. Roy looked at me then Ed again and went from frowning to a look of kindness yet at the same time endless amusement. "I see you're become a bit distracted, Hm?" Ed got a little defensive, but he stayed under the radar "N-No sir, not at all" He said.

"Well, if this is too difficult of a job for you I can always assign someone else to do the job" I was about to blurt out 'NO!' but to save myself the embarrassment I stayed quiet. Ed remained quiet, I really think that he didn't like the idea of leaving "..No sir, the job is not too difficult. But is this your way of saying it's no longer required for me to be Raven's body guard?" Roy looked serious for a moment but when he smirked I knew he was messing with Ed again. "Sigh. Well I guess I'll let you two young lovers to stay with each other a bit longer." Roy said with a smug look on his face. Both Ed and I were blushing "We're not lovers!" We both said at the same time. We looked at each other and then looked away quickly blushing even more now.

"Yehah. Sure." Sakura laughed. Al began to laugh as well "No you guys don't like each other one little bit". I smiled at all the poking fun, but typically Ed remained serious. I poked his side but he didn't move, then I tried to find a ticklish spot by poking him over and over again. He started blocking then he finally said "W-What the hell are you doing?" I was laughing pretty hard before so my face was even redder. "Because! You are the only one who is not smiling or laughing" I dove my hand towards his side again but he blocked it and pointed at me "Hey, I mean it cut it out" I began to feel a bit embarrassed by the fact that the Colonel of all people was watching this, but I didn't back down. "What are you ticklish Hmm?" He looked at me like I was crazy and said "No! So don't even think about trying to tickle me!"

Roy shook his head as he watched us sort of fighting about why Ed was so defensive when I asked him if he was ticklish. As it turned out the train did eventually stop at Resembool, so the only stop that was made was to get everyone who had been with Anora or victimized by her. After a few hours, Sakura fell asleep with her head (Or half of her body) in Al's lap. Al was a sleep as well, it was actually kind of cute. Ed and I were sitting next to each other, Ed was closest to the window. We were extremely bored, I fell back into the train seat and said "Y'know, I think I know how you feel with the whole boredom thing" He didn't turn to face me "Y' wanna go break something..." Still staring at the ceiling I said "Yeah.." 

Ed stood up and said "...Okay, let's go." I grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back into his seat with a thump, "NO! I didn't mean it like that!" Ed looked at me confused now "But I thought you wanted to break something...?" I sighed heavily, "No, I feel like breaking something. I didn't mean I wanted to go and actually break something" Ed looked at me for a moment then turned back to the window saying "...Oh.." in a depressed way. We sat in silence for a while, and then Ed suddenly started chanting "Bored, bored bored bored. Bored, BORED! Bored bored bored bored" This began to annoy me, "Shut up, Ed.." I biped him in the head lightly but I may have hit him to hard. Ed's head flew forward and hit the window with a very loud thump.

"Oh jeeze I am so sorry" I tried to hold back a burst of laughter. He turned around quickly with a very shocked and scared look on his face. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING TRYING TO KILL ME!!!" I couldn't help it, I had to laugh. I laughed so hard I was crying, Roy who was in the seat right behind us stood up and looked at us. He saw me dying of laughter, and Ed shaking his head occasionally giggling. Roy raised an eye brow "What's so funny?" Ed looked up and said "It was not funny, Raven hit my head into the window" I sat up and said "I did not hit you that hard, the only reason it made such a loud thump is because your head is so hard" "Yeah but you caught me off guard!" He yelled back.

I scoffed "You are always supposed to be on guard you idiot!" Ed was really annoyed now "HEY WHO ARE YOU CALLING A-" I slapped my hand onto his mouth. "You are yelling way to loud, Sakura, Al, and other people are trying to sleep" I whispered loudly to him. He pulled my hand off of his face and turned again to stare out the window. Roy sat back down and there was silence once again. I began to get sleepy, it was almost 1 AM Jeeze we must me far away from Resembool As if Ed had read my mind he said "We're pretty close to Resembool now. Man, Winry's gonna kill me because of this" I knew what he meant, Winry was probably gonna whack Ed upside the head because we came so late and didn't call to tell them we were coming late.

I tried not to but soon I fell asleep, when I woke up I was laying on something very warm. Well I wasn't laying on it so much as I was leaning on it, when I opened my eyes I saw it was still night and the train began to slow down. When I turned my head I saw a little bit of blonde hair and realized I was on Ed. I got off of him quickly saying "I'm so sorry" he only shifted a little bit, that's when I realized that the boy was peacefully sleeping. I moved a little closer to him in order to see his face, which I succeeded to do. Once I saw his face I couldn't take my eyes off of him, he was a very obnoxious yet outgoing young man I always thought. But as I watched him sleep I saw a side of him that nobody would believe existed, as I watched him he looked like an angel. 'Ed an angel? Yeah right' Most people who know him might say, but I may be one of the few people who think that there is such a side to him and that I was lucky to have gotten to see it. Ed shifted again but this time he opened his eyes, I was kneeling on the floor in front of him staring sort of up at him. At first I thought he would yell something at me the moment he saw me like that but he didn't, he was staring into my eyes. He still looked like an angel even now as he was awake, his eyes were even capturing the light from the moon outside.

_Holy crap, I must be dreaming_.. I thought. He suddenly looked like he realized something then he said "Why the hell are you watching me sleep...?" He looked very annoyed, the angelic side was gone he was back to the normal Ed. I blushed then stood up, "Ah, well I-I like watching people sleep!" Ed raised an eye brow _Ooohhh..Stupid...Stupid_ In my head I was smacking myself around for that and at the same time trying to figure out what to say. "Yeah! Um..." I couldn't think of a way to say this right. "Jeez are people that interesting when they sleep?" Ed said stretching. I smiled "You could be surprised" I sat down next to him knowing exactly what to say now. "Have you ever seen someone sleeping?" Not looking at me with his arms folded, Ed said "Yeah," I began to notice that people were getting on the train.

I grabbed Ed pulling him up saying "I'll tell ya later, Sakura! Al! Wake up!" Ed knocked on Al's armor and said "Hey, wake up!" I shook Sakura a few times but she didn't wake. "Sigh. She not gonna budge" I picked her up then carried her over to where the Colonel was and to my surprise the idiot was asleep. "ROY!" Roy woke up in an instant "Wha? What? Is there something wrong?" He stood up, Ed came around with Al following him. "Aside from the fact we have to get off the train NOW no everything's fine." We all hurried off the train before it departed, and for the first time I was in Resembool. Now I was really just hoping that nothing bad would happen while we were here.

End Chapter Six


	7. Chapter 7

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Okay, this is all I can do for now, guys. I have a lot of homework calling my name, and I have to put my studies before all of this. The rest of the chapters should be reformatted in a couple days or so.

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We finally arrived to the Rockbell's home, where I had to knock on the door because Ed was too scared to face Winry. Who answered the door was a very short woman with a pipe in her mouth. She looked up at me and raised an eyebrow, I stood there in silence and said "Uh, hi! Are you Pinako Rockbell?" Pinako smiled then pulled her pipe out of her mouth and said "Why yes I am, what brings a young lady like you here so late?" I glanced to the left side of me but quickly looked back to Pinako, "Er, well I'm here with Ed-" I looked over to where Ed was but he wasn't there, I looked back at Pinako blushing then I got a glimpse of red and gold. I grinned and stepped to reveal the boy who was sort of crouched down. Ed jumped and then said "AH! Uh, h-hi Auntie Pinako..." Pinako laughed, "Don't worry Ed you guys haven't woke Winry up." Ed slouched and said "Fwew that's a relief" Pinko grinned "Mainly because she's already awake" Ed freaked out again "Ack! Hide me!" This time he jumped behind Al who just took one big step to his right revealing the nervous looking Ed. Ed looked at Roy "Don't even think about it, Fullmetal.." Roy said glaring down at Edward. "Dammit, you all are cheep" he said.

Suddenly a wrench flew a foot past my head and hit Ed square in the forehead "WAHHH!" Her fell over and then a girl with bright blonde hair came outside "So that's how you say hello to me any more?! I don't believe you! You're lucky I have to pull an all nighter tonight" She looked to me with a bit of anger still left over from Ed then she smiled "Sorry you had to see that, its the only way I keep him in check" I was fighting back bursting out with laughter and Winry noticed. She held her right hand out and said "Hi, I'm Winry, what's your name?" I stared down at her hand and I realized that was her right, thus to shake hands with her I needed my left.

"Er, my name is Raven" Winry was sort of confused when I didn't shake her hand but she quickly was over it. Ed grunted and sat up "...She's the reason we came here." Winry looked back at me "What, does she have an artificial limb?" I scratched my head then said "Well, actually I-" Ed interrupted me "She lost her left arm" Winry looked back to me and smiled "Well don't worry, you're in good hands! I can't work on anything tonight though someone came in for maintenance and they need it done by tomorrow" Al came closer "Thus your all-nighter, huh.." Winry looked at Al then she slouched, "Yeah, and it sucks..hmm?" She looked at Sakura who was sleeping peacefully in Al's arms, "Who's this?" Al looked at Sakura then said "Oh this is Sakura" Winry smiled, "..Your girl friend?" Even if you couldn't actually see it, you could tell that Al was blushing heavily. I grinned "Yeah, she pretty much is" "Yeah whatever, like you have any room to talk since Ed is your boyfriend!"

Ed and I both blushed and together we yelled "We are not like that!" Ed and I looked at each other then folding our arms we turned our backs to each other. "..Fangirl" he said, then in response I said "...Midget" Winry and Pinako giggled "Edward you never told me you had a sister!" said Winry obviously poking fun, but Ed never really knows the difference. "Wha? She's not my sister! And she's not my girlfriend either!" Ed yelled defensively. Pinako grinned "Well she could be related to you two, she has blond hair like you Ed, but blue eyes like Alphonse" Which was a good point, my hair color was a lot like Ed's but I had blue eyes and the last time I checked Al has blue eyes. 

The five of us went inside and soon we all went to bed, boys in one room girls in another. It wasn't like any of the boys were gonna try anything but I didn't mind, maybe Ed snores or Roy. Either way it was probably better if we were all separate, but I didn't fall asleep until the sun began to come up. I couldn't stop thinking about all the things that have happened to me in the past two months. Really? Only two months? Pft. Man it really feels like half a year But it hasn't been all bad, I mean I really think that this is in a way a dream come true, but it IS a dream right? I've spent these past two months getting in real life danger, living with an anime character who is my body guard and doubting reality. At this point, all I really wanted to do was get my arm back. But what sugury should I get? Auto-mail. Judging by what I encounter almost daily it'll be the best thing for me I cringed at the thought of how painful it was going to be, but I chose to do it no matter what. 

I woke at about 8:56 AM to the smell of food cooking, usually I wouldn't be able to smell when Sakura was cooking. I went down stairs, and the moment Winry saw me she said "Morning! Did you sleep well?" I rubbed my eyes and thought _Not really_ "Er, yeah I slept pretty well!" Winry smiled, she looked pretty tired because she had to work on someone's artificial limb. She yawned and I asked "Is Ed awake already?" Winry looked at me in disbelief, then she giggled "No, that lazy bum isn't awake yet. He's such a pain when it comes to getting him out of bed" I smiled "Yeah, he is like that. Er should I go wake him up?" Winry was silent for a moment then she said "Well you don't have to, I was going to go up there myself in a few minutes-" she didn't sound to enthusiastic about it "..Don't worry, I've dealt with stubborn people a lot in my life" Winry smiled tiredly "Thanks, I don't think I have much energy now to put up with him." I turned around and before I went upstairs I said back to Winry "No prob, glad I could help"

I went upstairs and into the boy's bedroom. When I came in it was obvious that they didn't bother folding up their sheets. In the corner was a little lump in the blankets and I had figured it was Edward. I carefully made my way over to him, at first I began to wonder if that lump was just a pile of blankets. When I pulled some of the sheets back I revealed Ed in a tight ball. Ed groaned and buried his face into his pillow avoiding the light that was hitting his face. I softly said "Ed, wake up!" that most definitely didn't work. I squatted down next to him and shook him a bit "Ed c'mon, wake up! Its morning" He groaned again and rolled over facing the wall and pulling the sheets closer to his face. I scoffed then I pulled the sheets completely off of him "Hey, get yer lazy butt up now!" I yelled at him but not too loud.  
Still refusing to get up, Ed pulled his pillow over his head. I put my foot on his back and said "Edward.." Ed began to mumble incoherently and I said "Y'know if you took that pillow off of your head maybe I would understand you" He mumbled again and this time I was pretty sure he said "Fine I'll get up.." Seconds later he pulled the pillow off of his head and sat up rubbing his eyes, and for a moment he looked like a child.

That was until he grumbled at me "Why the hell did you put your foot on my back?" I grinned "I guess you'd rather me put my foot on your head next time?" With sleepy eyes Ed glared up at me but soon he stood up and said "..You're lucky you don't have an arm..." I scoffed "Whatever.." 

There was a lot of talking over breakfast, I thought I was at a relative's house during a family gathering. It was a very welcoming, considering my entire family was in America. After breakfast, Winry and Pinako did some measurements on me for my left arm and when the time came to pick which kind of surgery I was to get. When I told them I wanted auto-mail they attempted to talk me out of it, but I refused to budge. I made my choice, and I made that very obvious. Winry had stayed up too late last night so before they began she took a three hour nap to make sure she was fully awake for this. When Ed found out I could tell he wasn't at all sold on the idea but wasn't about to stop me.

As they prepared everything I became very fearful for what I was about to go through because I knew there was no turning back now. Throughout the surgery I fought screaming as much as possible but some shouts I couldn't hold in. Now I knew why they say it makes a grown man cry. Just when I thought it all would never end it did and to my surprise I didn't cry once, yelled but didn't cry. I kept my eyes closed in case there was more to come but then I felt someone's eyes on my face. When I opened my eyes I saw Winry smiling at me "That's it, you did great..." I was so glad that it was over I hoped not to endear that ever again. "..Ed had his arm and leg at the same time?" I asked "Jeeze I don't know how he managed to pull that off.." I didn't realize it but I fell asleep.

When I woke I was in the same place I was before only it was daytime outside. I sat up a bit, my arm still was gone but now there was some weight on that side. I continued to shift myself upright into sitting position, I stretched and yawned. The surgery must have exhausted me because I had slept fairly well. I looked around the room a bit, and eventually my eyes fell upon Edward's head that was next to me on the bed. Ed was sleeping, but he didn't look peaceful like he usually does. He looked concerned, almost worried his eyebrows were furrowed but he was completely out of it. I thought that it may have been a bad idea, but I reached out with my right hand to touch his face. I was very slow and gentle, when my hand made contact with his cheek he twitched. I quickly drew my hand away, he shifted a little and rubbed his eye then went back to sleep.

As he did all of this, I thought I may have seen quick flashes of gold from his eyes but I wasn't sure. "He didn't sleep very well last night" The sound of the voice startled me, I looked up from Ed and saw Winry smiling very warmly. She looked wide awake and the sunlight coming in through the window added a nice effect to her beauty. "How are you feelin?" Winry asked. "Hmm? Ah, good actually! Did I keep Ed up?" Winry looked down "No...Everyone slept fine except for him. He refused to go to bed, and he waited outside the door until you were done. He came in right after you passed out, he's been in here ever since" I looked down at the sleeping boy again, "..I wonder why he did that...?" I said quietly. Winry smiled again and said "Oh don't tell me you're clueless too..?" I looked at her and cocked an eyebrow "Hmm?" She grinned wider "Man, this is quite literally the first time Ed has gotten like this about a girl..." I finally caught her drift but I remained silent. I looked back at Ed and began to think about the possibility, the same thought I had been thinking since that day when we met Naroh. Back then I was asking myself, but now I'm wondering about Ed. He never says anything, he's always quiet and doesn't include himself in conversations. Does he feel left out? Or, is he just shy?  
Ed doesn't seem like the type I'd call shy. He usually has a lot to say from rude remarks to bellyaching about being bored, but ever since he got here he never says anything rude and the only time he said anything about being bored is on the train As I stared down at the sleeping boy I pondered his actions since he first became my bodyguard. Though I didn't notice, as I watched Ed sleep my heart was racing.

Yet again, he looked like that same angel I saw sleeping on the train. I began to wonder if what Sakura had said to me was true, maybe I did love him. My heart raced faster at the thought of that, I looked away from Ed and figured that there was no way Ed would feel the same.  
Winry gave me a much lighter and not so heavy duty artificial limb until my auto-mail was built. She offered to get it done in three days and seeing how exhausted she was I only got her to just get it done in five so she wouldn't hurt herself. I tried to talk her into getting it done in six or seven but she refused to take any longer. Ed finally woke up around lunch time, I supposed that he slept about 6 hours, and he definitely looked like it. He decided to stay up until it was actually bedtime to go back to sleep even though just about everyone offered him to take a nap. Ed and Al both gave me and Sakura a tour around Resembool, introducing us to every person we met along the way. We eventually came around to Ed and Al's old home, that wasn't exactly there anymore. Resembool was a pleasant little town and I would like to live here maybe one day, but that would be years from now. 

A couple of days went by and two people came in for maintenance and left Winry swamped and needed to extend the time to a little over a week, I was perfectly okay with it though. Our time in Resembol was nice and Roy eventually had to go back to Central which meant no more hearing Ed yelling at him. That was sort of a relief really. 

A week slowly went by and Winry ended up getting the auto-mail done sooner than expected. "Okay this may hurt a bit.." Winry said. I braced myself as Winry quickly connected my left shoulder to the new auto-mail limb. "Ahh!" I briefly shouted from the nerve connection. I looked at where my new left arm hung, it was heavy as hell and made me feel a bit lopsided. I was sure that it would take some time to get used to it, "Well, move it around! How does it feel?" Pinako said. I slowly lifted my left arm then straitened it out flexing my hand and smiled "It's like having my arm back! Thanks a lot!" Winry and Pinako smiled. 

We caught a train back home that evening, it was nice to have someone to wave good bye at the train station. Yet again we all ended up falling asleep on the train, some of us from boredom and some of us just from being tired. As I slept I had an uneasy feeling, like when we came home something bad would happen to someone close to us. But it boggled my mind who that someone could be. I finally woke up and the first thing I laid eyes on was Sakura yet again sleeping in Al's lap. The most disturbing thought hit me, What if it's Sakura's family? She's the only one of us that has family in that area, but what possibly could go wrong? I thought. Little did I know, everything could go wrong. 

The train screeched to a halt, waking us all up with a start. Outside the skies were gray as if a storm was approaching. As much as I enjoyed Resembol, it was still nice to be back home. I thought that maybe it would be best to stop by Sakura's home...Her original home that is. I threw the idea at everyone, Sakura was excited, Al wanted to meet Sakura's family, and Ed didn't see why not. It wasn't like Sakura just stopped going there and started living with us, she regularly went over there to visit and check up on everyone. She didn't live far from our house, so we quickly got there, but when we came things didn't look to pretty.

To be continued...

End Chapter Seven


	8. Chapter 8

We all stood in front of the house staring up at it, the windows were dark and the house was still. "C'mon! Maybe they're just out right now, we can surprise them when they come home!" Sakura said walking up to the front door.

She had quite a positive output and input about the situation, and maybe she was right, how could something bad possibly happen. She came closer to the door, all of us closely following behind. She suddenly stopped staring at the door, then I realized the reason why. The door was cracked open, not by much but regardless someone obviously didn't lock the door let alone close it. "Huh, strange.." Sakura said slightly under her breath. "Yeah that is.." Ed began to ponder the possibilities. "Ed..." Al said, then he looked at his very short older brother and silently communicated something to him, I perceived it as 'I've got a bad feeling about this'. Ed nodded then looked back at the door, seeming like 'Stay sharp' was what he would have spoken, but I don't think they wanted to worry anyone especially Sakura.

We cautiously entered and squinted around the dark room for a moment. There was absolutely no sound, the silence was eerie and deafening building up a knot in my stomach. "No ones home.." Al said, Ed began to walk further in saying "I suppose you're right...What's that smell?" he began to sniff the air Oh shit... I thought to myself "What smell?" I asked, I walked up behind him and before he could answer I already found it. The smell of blood, tons of it, some old some new so you couldn't really tell how long ago it was spilled. I cringed to think of what may have happened, "Ed...?" I said fearfully. Sakura began to get very scared, "I-I'm sure everyone's alright...They have to be." As she spoke her voice reduced slowly into a shaky whisper. We all were just plain disturbed at this point and to make matters worse a blood curdling scream broke out causing me almost to squeal in shock. I analyzed the scream in my head, it sounded like Matilda. "Wha? W-What was that?" Al said in a shaky voice, I didn't blame him for saying that because the scream sounded a bit inhuman.

"Matilda? Mom? Is that you?" Sakura yelled. The sound came from the room farthest back into the house on the same floor, at least that's how it sounded. We all carefully walked through the house, jumping at each creak in the floor one of us may step on. To worsen matters, a loud rumble broke out outside making Sakura scream. Those gray skies told no lie. There was definitely a storm out there, a Thunder Storm at that. Last time I checked Sakura didn't like T-storms at all, they scared her and this one only strengthened the fear that was already inside her. I was pretty scared too, I kept close to Ed since for some reason I felt the safest with him. A large flash of light filled the house followed by a gut shaking boom, I quickly grabbed Ed's arm causing him to jump. He looked at me very shocked, we both realized that I was clinging to him. I quickly pulled away blushing not making eye contact with Ed, whose eyes I could still feel on me. We drew closer to the back room, the smell of blood strengthening, the large raindrops drumming on the windows and the side of the house. We all stayed very close, Sakura was clinging to Al, as I remained close to Ed.

Because there were no lights it was hard to see as we finally entered the back room. Everything was black, but the smell of blood lingered on. Squinting I began to think there was a person there against the wall farthest from us. I took a step forward, Ed shifted as if he was about to stop me but he didn't. Another flash of lightning came through the window gave me the ability to see for a moment enabling me to see a bloody body propped up against the wall. I gasped and jumped backwards into Ed almost knocking both of us over. Ed fell back into the doorway with me leaning into him. "Jeeze! What the hells gotten into you?" Ed said, I blushed and got off of him. I looked back over to the wall where I saw the body and tried to see it again possibly even to see who it was. Ed finally realized something was wrong when I continued to stare in the same spot. He came closer to me and began looking in the same area. The lightning flashed again and he jumped, I knew he saw it. He looked at the doorway then kicked it knocking off a chunk of it. "Ed! What are you doing?" I yelled at him. He picked up the chunk of wood and turned to Sakura, "Sakura, do you think you could light this for me?" he held out the wood away from him. She pulled on her glove and lightly snapped her fingers aiming at the makeshift torch in Ed's hand. He carefully moved it over towards where we saw the body, squinting we all attempted to see what exactly was over there. "Gasp MOM!" Sakura screamed, it was worse than I thought. Sakura's mother lay leaned against the wall, her hair obscured her face, and half of her body had entire chunks of flesh missing. Only bloody bones were visible where flesh was not, I quickly looked away not being able to bear seeing the poor woman like this.

Ed lowered the torch taking the light off of the body, "Who?...Who could have done this?" I said with a shaky voice. Just then another scream broke out, this time from upstairs. I snatched the torch from Ed and began running upstairs, "Wha? AH!! Be careful!" Ed protested. I got upstairs and moved the torch around to see if anyone was there. Ed came up right behind me and grabbed the makeshift torch from me. He then ripped a prong from the stairwell and lit it considering the old one was getting low. "You're paying for that I hope you know." I said to him "I know.." he said handing me the new torch he then went downstairs to take the old one outside.

I looked around the room and began to walk further in. Sakura ran up behind me and stayed close, the thunder clapped outside subtly but still startled us. Finally a person came into view, curled up against the wall obviously alive. "Matilda!" I said shocked. She lifted her head and said "Raven..?" I smiled and came closer to her "It's alright now." Fear filled her eyes and she said, "No, stay away." I was confused as to what she meant, but I obeyed. "What do you mean? What's wrong?" She buried her head making it hard to here her when she spoke. "How do I know you're not him? Do just want to feed me to you fat friend too?" Now I was completely confused, "Matilda, it's us!" Sakura said coming out from behind me. "Sakura?" she looked up at her little red haired sister. Sakura nodded, and jumped into her big sister's arms. "So there are survivors." Ed said from behind me. Matilda and I looked at him, Matilda grinned a little "I'm guessing you're Ed, right?" She looked over at Al "And that's Al?" Ed and Al looked at each other and nodded. "Matilda, what happened?" I asked. Matilda looked at me mournfully, "They just came in like they owned the place, Dad asked politely why they just busted in and…He, told…Him to…eat." She buried her face on her sister, she couldn't even finish her sentence it disturbed her so much. "Who's they, and He?" she looked back up again and said. "One was a tall man with long green hair, he could turn into anyone he wanted and sound like them too." I knew who she was describing, but I had never met him before. "The other man was short and very round, he kept staring at me as if he was going to eat me. He's the reason for mom's condition." It seemed to make more and more sense yet at the same time none at all. "And with them also was a tall black haired woman who I noticed had a symbol right here" Matilda said padding her upper chest. I looked at Ed who was angry at this point, knowing exactly who the culprits were, "Envy, Gluttony, and Lust." I stood up "But why did they do this?"

There was a silence broken by a voice, that wasn't from the five of us, it wasn't even human. "Well, Gluttony kept whining about being hungry, so we stopped at a random house. If I had know this house had anything to do with you, Fullmetal, I would have steered clear of it." I looked over at Envy who was right next to the window with a mischievous look on his face. This could not be happening, they just randomly came to my friend's house and ate her parents? "Grrrr! Envy you bastard!" Ed yelled. Envy only grinned in amusement, just then I was pushed from behind and I heard a scream. I quickly looked behind me and saw Gluttony staring at Sakura as I he was about to eat her. Matilda held Sakura, obscuring her as much as possible from Gluttony "Stay the hell away from my sister!" she yelled as she swung her leg towards him. Gluttony just caught it with his mouth and began gently nibbling. "Hmmm, your meat is tender, I should have eaten you first" I jumped up and created a hand blade from my left hand, charging at Gluttony full speed. I awaited him to jump out of the way and let go of Matilda's leg, but he didn't and something drove deep into my stomach, something black and very sharp. "Raven!" Matilda and Ed screamed at different times, I looked up to see a woman smiling at me. She was pretty, I'd give her that, but the insane look in her eyes revealed the lust and manipulation inside.

She lifter her hand and gently took my hair out of my face, and began to look into my eyes. I was sort of dazed from the blood loss, but my train of thought was intact. "….You're a lovely girl, why do interfere?" Lust said. Still a bit weak I answered her "Because….I'm trying to protect my friends" She smirked, "Don't you have a family of your own? You shouldn't play Super Girl and try to save the day. You'll get killed that way. Then what will your family do?" I scowled at her "They are my family. Not by blood, but definitely by spirit." I said flatly. She smirked again and the thing in my stomach began to twist slowly. "Grrr.. Eh… AHHHHHHHHG" I yelled from the pain, I tried as much as possible not to scream. "It hurts doesn't it? That's what happens when you interfere, have you learned you lesson?" My eyes began to water, but I wasn't about to cry. I wasn't sure what to do and time was running out. She was going to have me dead, and my brain was too worried about the hole she was boring into me. "GET THE HELL OFF OF HER!!!" Ed yelled and before I knew it, the black thing once in my stomach was gone, no longer inflicting pain on me. I nearly fell over, but Ed had caught me "Are you alright?!" Ed said franticly.

I stood up, collecting my thoughts "I'm fine.." We looked over at the three homunculi who were staring at us. Envy smirked again "Oh don't tell me you've gone soft and fell in love, Fullmetal…?" Ed and I remained silent slightly blushing but not taking our eyes off of them. We all stared at each other for a while, then Envy shrugged and said "Well, no reason for us to be here anymore, we will see each other again soon Fullmetal, don't worry." They all jumped over the balcony, skipping the stairs and actually used the door. I cocked an eyebrow, "Okay…..Now don't tell me that wasn't a bit random" Ed merely stared at the place where the three homunculi stood, contemplating their sighting.

Luckily, Matilda wasn't hurt just disgusted by Gluttony slobbering on her leg. My wound wasn't to bad, I don't think she really had any intention to kill me, just to toy with me. The entire time we were home Ed and Al were totally quiet, not saying a word unless needed. It seemed as if the two brothers were avoiding even making eye contact with the three of us, even at dinner.

Ed sat there and ate silently, I began to really wonder what was going on in that blonde head of his. "Hey! Heeeeeellooooo! Ed!" Matilda said. "Yo! Short person!" Sakura said to him waiting for the 'I'm not short' routine. Nothing, absolutely no words could get a rise out of him, he just kept his face obscured by his hair. I attempted a different approach that didn't involve abusing him, "Hey Ed?" I said gingerly. No response. "Edward? C'mon I know you can hear me." Again, silence. "Will you at least move your arm? Or say something?" There was nothing, not even motion now. I was silent for a moment, then I said "Ed! Why won't you just-" I was interrupted by Edward abruptly standing up and leaving the room. "Jeeze, what's his problem?" Matilda said lightly. I looked down at my plate feeling as if he may be mad at me. The two sisters could tell I was worried and sort of hurt. "Hey, don't worry about him. Y'know some psychologists think that men sometimes go through emotional PMS." In my mind I was laughing my butt off, and I knew that was a lie she was just trying to be funny. I merely looked up at her and watch her face go from smiling to sort of disappointment that her joke didn't obtain the results she wanted. Sakura smiled and said "Don't worry, I doubt its you, maybe he is just troubled right now" Sakura turned back to her food and put another chunk in her mouth. Little did she know, her sister was mouthing 'Male PMS' and nodding like she was right. I smirked a little and shook my head, then I looked back to my food only to find I wasn't hungry anymore.

After dinner, I found Ed in the back room reading. He didn't look nearly as into it as he usually is, and I had proof when he looked at me. He looked into my eyes and little did I know, my expression was rather worried and pained, what I did notice is that the longer I looked at him the more I felt like crying. We kept staring into each other's eyes, until I looked away, feeling I had been staring for too long. Ed stood up right when I turned around to face away from him, "I just came to check on you." I said, I felt I should have explained but he completely understood what I meant. "Listen, I'm sorry." Ed said finally, "Not just, for how I acted. But for what happened earlier" I turned around and said "What do you mean?" He glanced up at me with his head still down, then he said "When you got hurt…" I relaxed a little "Ed, is that what this is about? It wasn't your fault I got hurt. I'm glad that's all it was, I thought you were mad at me." Ed smiled a little "No, I'm just in a bad mood" I smiled, he about gave me a heart attack. "They'll be back." Ed said extremely serious now "I don't know why but every once in a while we run into each other. I think they may be following me and Al" I came a little closer to him "That's the other thing you've been thinking about isn't it" Ed nodded.

End Chapter Eight


	9. Chapter 9

I was running as fast as I could trying to remember what I was looking for. _Haw man, why has my brain suddenly stopped working_ I stopped running and took a break to catch my breath then it hit me. Ed! That's what or who I'm looking for Everything was dark with an eerie thick grey fog everywhere. I backed up a bit looking around when something hit me in the back causing me to fall forward. "Grrrrr! Take that!" Without clapping my hands together I made stone spikes fly up from the ground hoping that they would hit this thing. It didn't "Where did it go?" I heard footsteps behind me and before I could act I was pushed to the ground again. I made a hand blade on my left arm made of auto-mail yet again without clapping my hands together and I swung up at where I thought the thing was, considering I couldn't see. I missed then I heard a sound of gas releasing and that was exactly what it was. I began to cough from this thick cloud of smoke that I had no idea where it came from. "Ed.." I said in a choked up voice. I coughed again weakly and fell over to be caught by someone. "Ed, is that you...?" I was very weak from this gas, but I still managed to sit up to see the face of who had caught me. At first I saw nothing but a shadow, but then their face came into clear view so clear it was unreal. The person was dead, their eyes were open but blank, their mouth was open their skin was pale, and to my horror...He looked just like Edward. I gasped and tried to scream but before I did I woke up with a start, sweating and panting uncontrollably.

I looked around, it was daytime and I was in my bed in my room with the sun pouring in. Thank god it was a dream I thought to myself. I raise my head and sniffed around...Smelled like...Burnt bacon? That explained the smoke effect in my dream, but this bacon was really burnt, I was beginning to wonder if it was even bacon anymore. I got a bad knot in my stomach and decided to go downstairs. I cautiously proceeded down the stairs hoping to hear a voice and not see something horrific. I saw into only part of the kitchen, as more of it came into view and my heart pounded.

"ED!!!!" Sakura screamed. I jumped and ran in seeing Sakura standing there turning off the stove. She spun around and as soon as she did Ed came running in...Yeah, into me and really hard knocking us both on the ground. "Ed I told you to watch the bacon!" She yelled angrily shaking her finger at the pan sitting on the stove with a black cloud rising from it. "You let him watch the bacon?" I asked in disbelief that she would trust Ed with that "Have you gone out of your mind!? he coulda set the house on fire!" Ed who was on top of me said "WHA? WHATS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN, HUH?!?!?" I was about to yell back but I didn't as my mind came across the dream I had. "Nothing, don't worry about it.." I said quietly. I felt everyone's eyes staring at me in disbelief. "What?" Sakura said "Have you gone out of your mind?" I blushed realizing what I had said. I turned to go back upstairs since I was in my PJ's and wanted to change, but when I turned Ed was there in front of me looking truly concerned. He looked in my eyes then he examined my clothes, I looked down at myself and saw that I was in my clothes not PJs. I looked back up at Ed blushing now, but he now was looking at Sakura "Eh heh heh! Sorry about the bacon" I took this moment to get past Ed and upstairs without him noticing, which worked because Sakura kept him distracted long enough so by the time he noticed I was gone, it was too late.

I changed my clothes and looked out the window at the orange and red leaves falling down. It was autumn, one of my favorite seasons. I looked at the calendar and saw the date 23rd circled in marker that was sort of faded because I put it there when I was thirteen. I was very excited about being so close to turning 15. The calendar we bought a while back came with two extra for later years. I circled my birthdays in both of them. Today was the 23 of October, I'm finally only one year away from sweet 16. I smiled and was put in a better mood since the nightmare, I headed back downstairs cheerfully.

When I came down Ed was reading, Sakura was attempting to clean the charred pan and Al tried at getting the black gunk off a couple of times too. I walked past Ed and I didn't notice the fact that I brushed against him awakening him from his reading trance. I went over to Sakura and Al who were still trying to get the gunk off of the pan. "Guys, I think that's gonna have to soak. There's no way you're gonna get the stuff off right now." Sakura sighed and said "I suppose you're right, well I guess it's always good to have an extra pan around" I smiled at her, then I finally noticed someone's eyes on me. They had been there for a while so I turned around and met to Ed's eyes. He quickly looked away back to his book blushing a bit, I couldn't help but wonder why he was always so quiet, other than his loud outbursts whenever someone said something he didn't like. I stopped letting it bother me and took over making breakfast for everyone. Al and Ed were sort of shocked at me making breakfast, they began to wonder what exactly had gotten into me, especially Ed. I'm pretty good at cooking but it's not often that I do such so this was a rare thing. I was about to put in another egg when I realized what I was doing, I grinned, _Opps, forgot Al can't eat breakfast_ I thought. I felt bad that he couldn't but regardless I put the egg away and put the cooked food on everyone's plates.

Sakura, Alphonse and I all chatted about random things but unlike usual I took much of a notice that Ed remained outside of the conversation. The only time he really talked anymore was if someone says something about him. There was a big burst of laughter from something funny that Sakura had said. I laughed as well and when I looked over at Ed I saw that he was facing his food not smiling or anything. I began to wish that he would include himself with us more, he isn't an outcast.

After breakfast Al and Sakura went in the back room to play chess but Ed stuck around. He stood there for a moment as I gathered and began washing the dishes. I was sort of smiling as I did so which was a result of my good mood and Ed noticed that. "Um...Is everything alright?" Ed asked carefully. I attempted to wipe my forehead and when I turned to face Ed he began laughing. "Wha- Why are you laughing?" I asked. Ed began to get a hold of himself, he said pointing at me "Uh you're...You got soap on your head." I tried to wipe it off forgetting that I had more soap foam on my hand. "You just put more.." before Ed could finish his sentence he was bent over laughing but obviously trying not to. I began to laugh as well, I finally grabbed a towel and wiped the foam off properly. "So Ed you asked me something before you started laughing, what was your question?" Ed straitened up a bit and said "Oh uh I was just wondering if you're okay" His question was vague but I still managed to understand what he meant "I'm just in a good mood that's all!" I turned back around to the dishes and began washing again, I didn't bother to tell him why and he knew it would sound weird if he asked why. He stood there watching me in sort of fascination, he didn't quite understand me let alone the feeling he would get whenever he was near me.

Ed decided to go in the back room where Al and Sakura were and hoped that he would get some information that explained my behavior. As Ed approached the room Sakura jumped up and ran past him to go to the bathroom. Ed walked in and sat on the couch next to where Al was sitting. "What's up?" Al asked Ed, who looked very much like something was on his mind. "Well you know Raven better than I do, do you have any idea of why she's acting like this? Is there like something coming up that she's excited about, er what?" Al sighed "You never learn do you." Ed looked at Al not sure of what he meant. "Do you have any idea why you don't know Raven that well?" Ed remained silent "It's because you don't talk to her. Don't be so shy, just ask her." Ed shifted uneasily at the thought, yet again his little brother knows exactly what's going on, Ed really is shy. "I don't know, Al.."

"What are you so afraid of? She won't bite you" Sakura said, who obviously had been standing there for quite some time. "Wha? When did you get here?" Ed said sort of shocked. Sakura stood there pondering out loud "Hmm, lets see...Right about when Al said...why don't you just ask her" Ed looked down, then Sakura said "Oh I get it, you're all wierded out because you're realizing that you love her" Ed blushed tremendously "Wha? I do not!" Ed defended. Al and Sakura looked at each other then back at Ed and said "Yeah right" Sakura giggled and sat back down in the chair across from Al in front of the chessboard. "Just face it Ed! You've developed feelings for her! Theres nothing wrong with that." Al encouraged. Ed turned his back towards them and before he left the room he said "There is no way I L- have feelings for her.." He couldn't even say the word love, and he felt that he would never say it.

He quietly went back into the kitchen where I was still doing dishes, but I was no longer in a good mood. Ed didn't make a sound, he merely observed me catching a few glances of a sad face. He didn't want to admit it even to himself but he was sort of entranced by the sad girl. But wait, why was I sad? Ed didn't understand how quickly my mood had changed.

As I scrubbed a glass it slipped out of my hand and hit the ground with a crash making Ed and I jump "Oh crap.." I grabbed the towel and began using it to pick up the pieces of glass. "Let me help you!" Ed said coming out of nowhere, to me that is. He carefully used his right hand to sort of sweep and scoop up the glass shards. "Be careful.." I said almost in a whisper, Ed forgot what he was handling and used his left hand to sweep some glass into is right, cutting him right on the index finger. "Ow.." he quickly drew his hand back "Ed! I told you to be careful! Let me see.." Ed was about to refuse and say he was fine but the moment I touched his hand all resistance left his body.

He wasn't quite sure what had happened except that his body would do whatever I told it to do. He grimaced a little from the burning of me running cold water on his finger. I shut the water off and said "Alright that should do it, wait here I'll go get a bandage" I ran upstairs to the bathroom leaving Ed alone with his thoughts. How does she get me so calm, it's unreal! And that feeling I keep getting in my stomach got worse. Man what is that, I keep getting it whenever she's in the room. Oh crap, what if Al and Sakura are right. He couldn't help but continually ask himself '_What if I do have feelings for her?'_

Ed's thoughts were interrupted by me coming back into the room and grabbing his left hand to wrap his finger. I finished bandaging his finger, "Alright, there you go all done!" I said cheerfully. Ed smiled "Thanks...Uh.." He tried to remember the reason for coming in. "What is it?" I asked "Oh uh, well I was just a wondering why you're in such a good mood. Like uh is because of the weather or-" I touched my finger to his lips and smiled at him sweetly. "I get your point Ed." Ed got that feeling in his stomach again but this time it was accompanied by chills. I turned back to cleaning up the glass and said "Well if you must know...It's my birthday today" It was all clear to Ed now, "Oh! Er sorry, I had no idea.." I looked up at him and said "Oh don't worry about it, I never told you until now! Thank you for asking me though..." Ed blushed a bit "Eh, don't mention it.." I finished up cleaning the glass with help from Ed then I went back to washing the dishes.

Afterwards I went in the office area to read for a little while. Ed went into the back room again telling Al and Sakura about what he found out. "Oh yeah I know.." Sakura said. Ed got pissed off "You..You already knew...?" Sakura looked at him through the corner of her eye and said "Yep.." Ed was obviously fuming "Wha-why didn't you tell me!?" Sakura grinned "Because it was much funnier watching you blush about Raven. It's so cute don't you think so Al?" Ed glared at Al, and without looking at his brother Al said "Please don't bring me into this.." Sakura was sort of confused and gave him a "Hmm?" that meant 'Wha? You're scared of him?' and Al knew it. "You knew too, didn't you!?" Ed said in his 'getting angry' voice. Al didn't want to fight but he was already involved now "Who cares if I did? It was best for you to actually talk to her for once anyway, so what are you complaining about? We're just trying to help you!" Ed looked away, he could feel Al's apprehending stare on him. Ed would usually resist but Al was right, Ed found out a lot more by talking to me than just 'If it was my birthday' it got him thinking about his feelings. He would always avoid them, but he's gotten too far and there's no turning back now. "Hey Ed.." Sakura said before Ed left the room. "What.." He said coldly. "Me and Al are setting up a surprise birthday party for Raven, y' wanna help?" Ed turned his head to look over his shoulder at Sakura, "Well why didn't ya say so earlier.." Sakura grinned "I just wanted to drive you nuts" Ed smiled "Ah, a lot of people like to do that.." The three planned and worked while I just hung out reading, totally oblivious to what they were up to.

Ed came in the room to check on me of free will, and he came in right when I was thinking about my mom. Ed stood there for a bit, I didn't notice him though "Hey today's your birthday, aren't you supposed to be happy?" Ed said. I looked over at him and he smiled at me, I looked back at the desk and said "I'm just thinking about my mom that's all..." Ed slowly began to move closer to me, "I just wish she could be here." I said. Ed put his hand on my right shoulder "Even though she's been dead for almost six months now, it's still hard for me to let go..." Ed squeezed my shoulder a little then gently released "I must seem so weak to you.." I said quietly. Ed began "You're not weak...You're human...You're not gonna heal overnight from something like that, you shouldn't expect so much from yourself. If you push yourself too hard you may end up getting hurt even more." He took his hand off of my shoulder and said "Just like this cut I got on my finger it needs time to heal and it will take time to heal, no matter what there's nothing I can do about that accept make sure it doesn't get infected. Your hearts is wounded, you need to take care of it rather than try to heal faster." Ed said.

There was a silence, I had nothing really to say, "Sorry" he said again, "Don't worry about it Ed." I grabbed his hand and held it "You're right, I should just take care of it, but I just can't help but feel weak, or helpless." Ed began holding my hand back "You can feel like that but that doesn't make it true. You're already recovering faster than any other 14- wait, 15 year old I know." I smiled "Thanks.." I didn't actually notice are hands joined together until just then, Ed noticed as well and we both pulled away quickly.

I got a phone call and it was a friend who was in America. She and my other friends were celebrating my birthday wishing I was there, then my friend put me on speaker phone, put the phone in a chair and tried to put a party hat on the phone. This resulted in the phone falling off the chair, but it was put back up. I talked to them for a good while and little did I know that gave Ed, Al and Sakura time to set up for the surprise party. I talked for about an hour and I stopped when all of the lights went out. I figured it was a black out but later I found out Ed actually just turned all the lights out. I went into the back room saying "Al! Ed! Sakura! Where are you guys?" I heard a loud bang like someone got hit with a frying pan, it was probably Ed running into Al. I came to the kitchen to hear whispering "Ow.." followed by "Shhh!" and another whisper "Sorry.."

I grinned at all of this, "Hello?" Out of habit I flipped the light switch and to my shock it came on. Out from under the table Sakura jumped out, and behind the table Al stood up. They both yelled "surprise!" along with a very loud bang that shook the entire kitchen table. Sakura bent over and looked under the table and said "Ed are you alright?" She was answered by a very loud moan that blended into words "..Whose idea was it to jump out from underneath the table" I began to giggle and so did Sakura. Ed sat up rubbing his head, he looked at me and said "Happy birthday.."

I was very happy that they all did this for me, I had no idea they'd even do something like this at all so it was a pleasant surprise. Ed did most of the decorating while Al and Sakura worked on the cake, because we all knew what would happen if they let Ed do any cooking. We picked on him a little about that, but he didn't seem to truly mind. Ed and I play fought a little and I let him win which he doesn't believe me when I say so, I just wasn't in the mood for hard core sparring and I think Ed noticed that. We played and talked for hours until Sakura began to fall asleep. Ed took her upstairs and Al went to bed as well, I stayed downstairs and read for a while and after 20 minutes I figured that Ed went to sleep too. Eventually I read myself to sleep, but as I slept for some reason I felt like there was still one person still awake.

To be continued...

End Chapter Nine


	10. Chapter 10

Edward zipped up his shirt and pulled on his red coat. He was about to leave his room but he took one more glance of his little brother sleeping peacefully. As he quietly made his way downstairs he saw me in my office chair sleeping. He came into the room carrying a piece of paper, he was about to put it on my desk when suddenly he realized that I was slipping out of the chair and was about to fall. He stuffed the paper into his pocket and just then I opened my eyes and slipped out of my chair only to be caught by Ed. I was a little startled considering I almost fell, I rubbed my eyes and said "Edward, what are you doing up so late?" I looked at his chest to see that he was dressed to go somewhere, "Wait, why do you have your coat on? Are you going somewhere?" Ed stared at me hesitantly but then smiled "I guess you could say that.." I was concerned now, why hadn't he told me about this?

"Well, where are you going?" Ed only smiled again but this time he looked sad as if he was going to cry. He stood up still holding me and then he put me back into my chair, he didn't look at me at all but I knew that he felt my eyes on his face. He finally looked into my eyes and said "I'm going to be gone for a while, if I don't come back in a day then you can come after me" I was becoming very frustrated about this whole roundabout way he was telling me this and still not answering my questions "What the hell are you talking about? Why won't you answer my question?" I raised my voice at him a bit but he only turned away so that his face remained behind his hair. "...I-I'm sorry.." Edward said quietly. I began to think that maybe he was crying but the only evidence I had was his shaky voice. "..I should have told you sooner..." His voice was still shaky and now was reduced to a whisper. "Ed, look I just want to know where you are going." Then it hit me Wait, is he no longer my body guard? Is that why he didn't tell me? But why would he be scared to face me about that? I thought to myself. Ed turned his head back to face me again, "...I just have to leave town because they need back up somewhere" I figured that "they" were the people at central. "Well, can't I come-" I barely was able to finish before Ed cut me of saying "No!...You can't go..." His head was turned away again "I will not put your life in danger EVER..." Edward said, his voice shaky.

I stood up slowly to come a little closer to Ed, I thought he would turn further away but he didn't. I reached my hand out to his face and the moment I came in contact I felt his skin jump but he still did not move. I then moved my entire hand very gently and slowly onto his cheek feeling how soaked it was with tears, he didn't want to leave and he still was crying only now his tears were falling onto my hand. I almost began to cry myself even knowing that he was upset. I slowly took my hand off of his face and brought it down to my side. Dripping from my fingers were the tears that my hand had caught from his face. Finally a tear rolled down my cheek and was quickly wiped away by Ed, he smiled at me warmly with his cheeks shining slightly from the very little light in the room. As much as I refused to admit it to myself I didn't want Ed to leave, the thought of him being gone made me want to cry more but I held it in. In order to avoid balling I looked down so not to see Edward's gold yet very sad eyes. Ed put his red coat around me and I looked up at him, "Hang on to that for now, you can return it to me when you come after me. But promise me you won't come after me until one day has gone by" I tried to speak but all I managed to do was nod, then Edward pulled me closer and held me tightly in his arms. I began to cry even more now but my voice remained steady "How will I know where to look for you?" I could almost feel Edward grin "You'll know when the time comes" I was going to ask why he wouldn't tell me but I didn't for I fully trusted him with this.

Before I knew it I was waving good bye to Ed as he started down the street in the night fog. When he held me I didn't want to ever leave his arms and judging by how tight he was holding me I think he felt the same way. But why would either of us feel that way, we're just friends aren't we?

I woke up in the office chair the same way I was last night, I thought maybe it was just a dream but then I noticed that I was wearing Edward's coat. That was when I knew that it wasn't a dream, He must be cold without his coat, why did he give it to me. He rarely takes it off. Then I realized how much of an idiot I really was, Ed gave his coat to me to show that he trusts me. He wants me to return it to him, and that was exactly what I was going to do.

I went upstairs into Ed and Al's bedroom and looked around the room a bit. To my surprise Ed even made his bed before he left Wow, he really must have been stalling. I also looked in the closet and none of Edwards clothes were on the floor like they usually were. I heard Al shift behind me, "Ed?" I turned around and as if Al was shocked he said "Raven?! Wha-what are you doing in here?" that's when I realized that Ed hadn't told Al either, Jesus Christ, Ed is beginning to trust me way too much, first he left his coat with me and now his little brother! I looked down for a moment "Alphonse, there's something you need to know.." Al sat up; he knew something was wrong I usually didn't call him by his full name. "...Your brother left last night." Al moved again "What?" I looked at him and said "He made me promise that we weren't to go after him until one day has fully passed." Al couldn't believe what he was hearing "But, why? Why can't we go now? What if he needs help now!?" I looked down again "I don't know why Al..." I put my hands into the pockets that were on Ed's coat and found a piece of paper. "hmm? What this?" Then Sakura came in saying "Okay boys time to get-" When she saw me and Al there but not Ed she looked confused. "Er, why are you in here wearing Ed's coat Raven? And where IS Ed?" I frowned "Ed isn't here.."

Over breakfast I explained what had happened last night leaving out some details just for the plain and simple fact that I still was too shy about how I really felt for Edward. After all of that was said and done, I finally opened the piece of paper that was in the coat pocket to examine it. It was a note, and it read:

_Raven,_

_I'm sorry that I didn't tell you this before but I am leaving tonight and_

_I need you to come after me ONLY until one day has passed since you got_

_this letter. You probably are wondering now where I am going so I'll give_

_you a hint:_

_I met a girl named Rose here._

_She was being brainwashed like the rest of the citizens here by a crazed_

_man named Father Cornello._

_I know you can do it._

_Good luck,_

_-Edward_

I thought about his hint and I figured it out in an instant Lior! That's where he went! Wait a minute, just what the hell would he need to be in Lior for? I pondered at it for a bit but my mind wandered away to realizing the fact that Ed knows me really well, too well and I knew him really well too. I then began to think of how I was going to get to Lior, and before I knew it 10 PM rolled around. _One day, huh, alright it was about 3 AM when he told me that, so at 3 AM tonight we're heading to Lior._ I got up quickly and went into the back room where Al and Sakura were playing chess. I sort of startled them because I came in so fast that I crashed into the doorway, "Is everything alright?" Sakura said. I nodded "Yeah, Ed's in Lior. And he said not to go after him until one day has passed and that one day will pass at 3 AM tonight. So we can leave then or tomorrow." Sakura and Al looked at each other then looked at me and said "We'll leave tonight." I smiled, they were just a stern about this as I was. Waiting for 3 AM to roll around was very hard, but as much as I longed to leave then and there I got a strong feeling that waiting was going to be crucial to Ed and our safety.

Every minute felt like ten to me, my head spun from all of this waiting and my heart ached from being away from Edward. Eventually I fell asleep but when I realized that I passed out I quickly woke and noticed that it was now 2:57 AM. I jumped up and ran out of the office area and almost ran into Sakura literally. Sakura looked at me fiercely "Yep, we're ready. I was just coming to wake you up." I grinned. The entire house felt like it was in motion as the three of us got ready. I pulled my shoes on, so did Sakura. Then I pulled on Edward's coat, Sakura her flame gloves. We rushed down the street that was now wet from the rain that was now coming down like crazy, before we left I put some towels in Al's armor so we could dry him off quickly. When we got to the train station the next train going towards Lior was leaving very soon. When we got on the train we got the towels out, Sakura dried her hair but I didn't bother with mine, I was just worried about Al whom I was now helping get dried of before he began to rust. The estimated time for the ride between here and Lior was around two hours, and I didn't like that fact very much. "Man this is gonna be boring" After 30 minutes Sakura fell asleep in Al's lap, and soon Al nodded off as well leaving me as the last one awake. I stared out the window and watched the rain die down and eventually stop revealing a dark blue sky full of what looked like millions of diamonds.

The train began to slow down and it was now 4:45 AM and we were in Lior. The screeching of the train stopping awoke Al, "Are we already here?" I smiled "Yep, they were early probably because there aren't very many people on the train right now I suppose." Sakura groaned and stretched like a cat lying on its side. Once we got ourselves together, which didn't take long, we got off of the train into a deserted train station. The train took off quickly which told me that there was something seriously wrong going on here. We began to walk around the war torn town seeing people either dead or bleeding to death. Suddenly we heard an explosion and I immediately began running towards where I heard it. Al and Sakura closely followed. When we got to the place that the explosion came from I saw a very tall man with dark skin. He turned around, he wore dark glasses and had a very large scar on his face. When I saw that scar I knew immediately who he was, at first I was scared but I quickly put my fears aside. "Hmm..I should have known that you would send for help Fullmetal.." I glared at him "Actually we came of free will.." I said to him, I glanced over next to Scar and saw Ed tied up. "Ed!" He seemed alright accept for the blood that was dripping from his mouth. "Al, go get help from the military.." Ed said sternly. "But-" Al protested "Just go!" Ed yelled. Al nodded and Sakura said "I'll go with him" I looked at Sakura who was looking at me for approval. "Fine by me" I said, then I turned back to face Scar. "I see...You mean something to this boy...No matter I'll just have to finish you off as well."

"Yeah, if you get a chance.." I clapped my hands together and created a spear from the ground, then charged at Scar with it. Scar thrust his hand forward onto my face but I quickly moved my head to the right before he could blow my head up. Just then Edward who was behind Scar got free and attacked him with his hand blade but missed. Scar attempted to destroy Edward's right arm but Ed just quickly changed the metal type in the auto mail. Scar charged forward but didn't hit Ed, just hit at him which somehow sent Ed flying hard and fast into the wall. Scar hit the ground and split it below us causing us all to fall into a pit. Scar turned towards me but I used alchemy on the wall behind me and sent it flying into Scar. I made a hand blade but Scar used the same air attack that he used on Edward, slamming me very hard into the wall. "Raven! Oh, now you've done it!" Ed yelled. I lay on the ground in a lot of pain I had to get up but I couldn't move. I hated this I was too weak to fight but Ed was getting his butt kicked. _Get up...GET...UP!!_ I finally got up and then Ed got slammed against the wall. I knew that what I was about to do was very stupid but I did it anyway.

Scar was about to kill Ed, but before he used the alchemy I put my left hand into Scar's right and his alchemy thrust me backwards into the wall. I almost landed on Ed but I just hit the wall above him, I used alchemy on that part of the wall and made another spear considering I didn't know what happened to the other one. Scar dogged my attack, and then Ed attacked with stone spikes that Scar quickly blew up. I attacked with my spear again and this time I hit Scar in the left shoulder. He yelled in pain but soon thereafter turned to face me, and I knew he wanted to kill me. I stood my ground and was ready to move anywhere, then Ed charged and swung his left leg towards Scar's head but he soon caught it then destroyed it. "ED!" I screamed, Scar turned to face Ed now and it looked like Ed had succeeded in pissing him off more than I did. Or maybe it was because he was now closer to finally killing his enemy. "I guess this is it Fullmetal.." Ed turned his head preparing for death, "Say good bye to this world.." Scar's hand grew closer "NO!" I jumped in between Ed and Scar the I saw a flash of light and a shooting pain in my right side. Blood splattered and fell onto Ed's face, which traumatized him.

I came down to the ground holding my side, having trouble breathing. Scar scoffed "What a waste, well now at least you both will be easy to finish off" I wasn't done yet, in fact I was livid. "You...bastard..." I said with some difficulty. "You are going..DOWN!" I clapped my hands together and hit Scar with the stone spikes. Grabbing up my spear I charged at him again but I missed and he merely punched me in the stomach, he obviously thought that I wasn't worth wasting the alchemy on at this point. I leaned against the near by wall holding my side again. "Why do you bother..?" Scar asked me. Panting hard I said "You wouldn't understand.." I was still looking down. "Maybe you don't know, so think about it why are you doing all of this for him?" Scar asked pointing at Edward. "Oh I'll tell you why..." I said with a shaky voice. "So why don't you..?" Scar said still picking trying to get me to say something that I should have said a while ago. "I love him..." I mumbled incoherently. "What was that?" Scar asked again.

"I LOVE HIM!!" I yelled looking up at Scar with tears in my eyes. "She..What..?" Ed said under his breath. "Hmm...I should have expected that such a useless emotion would cause you to do this" Scar said. "You just say that because you don't understand it...Love is very powerful, it doesn't make you weak but strong" I said. I stood up strait, "It's powerful...and that's why it's feared...That's why I feared it" Scar came closer to me "Here let me relieve you of it.." He put his right hand towards my head then Ed yelled "Don't dare touch her!" Ed actually managed to transmute himself a crutch and he had it hand blade to the back of Scar's neck. "Do it, and I will kill you myself.." Scar turned his head a little to see Ed out of the corner of his eye. "...I think I remember that you are Raven's Body guard, and that's the only reason you're doing this isn't it?" Ed growled "No, that's not the only reason, in fact it's not the reason at all...It's because I love her!" He shouted. After he said that, he had an expression on his face as if he couldn't believe he said it. We began to hear voices, lots of them then Scar moved out from between us and said "This isn't over, I will be back so you had better be ready Fullmetal.." Scar ran into the darkness and disappeared.

I felt a bit weak and before I knew it I was falling only to be caught by Ed, again. "Raven! Are you alright?" Ed said sounding fearful if I wasn't. I smiled "Yeah I'm fine, how about you?" I said softly. "Well my left leg is busted and Winry's gonna kill me. Other than that I'm fine" I slightly giggled then my mind fell to what Ed said before. "Edward..?" I said "Hmm?" I was silent for a moment then I finally asked "Ed, do you really love me..?" Ed was silent then he began to embrace me tighter "Yes..." I held Edward back "I love you too.." I began to cry "..I love you so much..."

There were many footsteps then we heard First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye say "Alright, where is he?" Edward looked up and said "Well, yer late...Just missed him. And we would have gone after him If my left leg wasn't busted and Raven wasn't bleeding. Riza grinned "But you two are okay, right?" Both I and Ed yelled back "Yep.." The got us out of the pit and got me bandaged up.

As they searched, the four of us waited and watched the sun rise. Ed held me the entire time and I eventually fell asleep since I didn't get much sleep while I was worrying about Ed, but now my worries were rested. Now I could sleep, in the arms of the man that I love.

To be continued...

End Chapter Ten


	11. Chapter 11

Ed slowly awoke to the sun pouring in the room, he looked at the clock and realized he was up early. He decided to just lay back down instead of getting up. As he stared up at the cealing his mind wandered to the memories of a couple of weeks back. He couldn't ever get it out of his head, he couldn't ever forget, the very words he and Raven exchanged. The words that exposed what he tried so hard not to uncover, he wasn't sure why though. His heart began to race at the thought of the words that came out of her mouth, and out of his mouth. He smiled as he recollected looking at her sleeping as the sun began to rise. He had never been so sure of something in his life, nor had he felt this way for someone before. His mind had touched kissing her possibly, but every time it did he got so nervous he couldn't move. One day he would kiss her, but that day hadn't quite arrived.

(Raven's POV)

8:35 AM, sun shining bright with no clouds, to me it seemed nothing could go wrong. I went downstairs into the kitchen to see Ed getting a glass of water. He had his back to me, I could tell he had just woke up by how messy his hair was. For some reason I began to think about what happend a few weeks back between him and I, when I confessed how I felt to him. I wondered if he had forgotten about it by now, he finished his water and put it in the sink. I came closer behind him and put my hand on his shoulder. He jumped and turned around quickly. He sort of relaxed when he saw it was just me, there was a moment of awkward silence as we looked at eachother. "Uh, good morning" I said, he smiled slightly and said "Er, morning!" Sakura came in the room and said in passing without looking at either of us "Morning lovebirds" Ed and I blushed "We are not love birds!" we both yelled at the same time. I glanced at Ed and made eye contact then quickly looked away.

Sakura smirked, "Oh please, its the most obvious thing in the world that you guys are in love!" Ed looked at Sakura irritibly, "Yeah, well, that missconception is on the world, not us." I chose to say nothing, perhaps he really did forget, it made my heart sink just thinking about it. Ed left the room and went back upstairs, after all, it was sunday.

Sakura and I started on breakfast, and all the while I couldn't stop wondering, Did he forget what I said? Does he really love me? Was it just the panic talking that day? I shook my head as if trying to shake the thoughts out, I really needed to stop worrying about some boy and concentrate on what I had been studying all along; The reason all of this happened in the first place.

Right before breakfast was finished, Ed and Al began heading down the stairs, Ed's hair was now straitened out.

"Morning Raven! Morning Sakura!" Alphonse said cheerfully. Sakura then suddenly got nervous and stuttered, "Uh-Er, G-good morning Al!" I smirked, Speaking of marriges. I then glanced over at Ed, who was looking down at the table. My heartbeat became stronger to the point I could almost hear it, he really was such a handsome man. Ed then looked up at me, my heart skipped two beats as I jolted my head to face a different direction. I must have fallen for him even more since I last checked.

Everyone ate their breakfast silently, too tense to even speak for a reason beyond me. Then I came to a conclusion that our hormones started kicking into a higher gear, GREAT.

Ed, Al and Sakura decided to hang out outside since it was such a beautiful day, but I had more important things on my mind.

I went back thru my research books, the ones dated to 1805 and 1905. I began thinking that if I conducted a transmutation using the same chemicals that maybe I could find link that way. Uh, c'mon Raven, think logically here, how am I supossed to find all of these? I could start with the chemicals from the explosive transmutation, it was either that or the sudden death transmutation.

I sat back in my chair, this could really end badly, what if I get really hurt, or worse die? I guess the only way to make scientific progress, you have to do some experiments, I just really wished it didn't have to go this way.

Edward then came back in and walked over to me. He was panting lightly, probably playing tag with Sakura and Al, or sparring, I never knew with that guy. "Hey, Whats up? You commin outside?" I looked at him, then back at my desk, "No, I have a few things I need to do." I said. Ed looked a little bummed, "Oh, well, come out when you're done, alright?" He flashed me a big grin that made me smile, "Yeah, I will."

A few minutes after Ed went back outside, I decided to pack the two books that listed the chemicals and I snuck out. I knew my leaving the house alone last time didn't end well, but I didn't want to ruin Ed's day by getting him worried.

The chemicals could easily be found, although I did have to track down an Alchemy store. (Yes, there really are Alchemy stores, I was shocked myself when I found out!) I had learned my way around the town back when my mom was still around. I felt a knot build in my stomach, I really did miss her, I just couldn't believe she was gone. I shook off my depressed feeling and realized it was going to be sundown soon, and everyone was probably going to be inside soon. Ed wouldn't be happy if he found out that I had snuck out, besides I got what I needed. So I hurried home before I could get myself in trouble.

I arrived at home just in time, I quickly pulled my shoes a jacket off and went into the office area to set my bag down. I sat down in the office chair and just then Ed walked in. "Hey, how come you never came outside?" I looked at Ed, he looked so innocent and unexpecting of the news I was about to break.

It was the only other thing left to do, its time Ed knew.

End Chapter 11


	12. Chapter 12

"What?" Ed said. I had just finished telling him what I'm going to do, the information I have so far, and all of the risk factors involved. He looked back at me and said, "You aren't really going to go thru with this right?" I looked down at the floor, prepared for a lecture after my unwanted reply. "Yes, I am going thru with this. I have everything I need and-" Edward interrupted me, "Are you crazy, you could be killed!" He hit his hand on the desk and said "No, I'm not gonna let you do this, its too dangerous-" I cut him off, "There's no talking me out of this, Ed! I've made my decision." Ed got irritated, he knew not all girls were like this, so why was she acting so stupid! "The hell you have!" I was getting angry now, who did he think he was ordering me around! "You're not the boss of me, I've made this decision, its my problem if I fail! My resposibility, so quit trying to act like my dad, both my parents are gone!"

Ed went silent, I turned away from Ed and started straitening the contents of my bag as a short passtime. "So thats it, you're just gonna throw your life away." Ed said, why wouldn't he get this thru his skull. "No, Ed, I'm not just throwing my life away, this is the only step I can take towards moving forward in my reasearch. After all, I didn't become a dog of the state for no good reason." Ed paused for a minute, then he spoke again. "I know that, but-" I interrupted him again, "But nothing, Ed! You're not gonna stop me!" I said. "The hell I won't! Do you honestly think you mother would want you to do this? Huh?!" Ed yelled. "I don't know because she's gone, Ed, okay!" I said, a little quieter. "No, you do know, you just want to be an IDIOT and throw your life away," Ed yelled as he moved closer to me. Slowly lowering his voice as he got closer to me, he continued, "And as your bodyguard...I won't allow it." We were now face to face, staring right into each other's eyes. Ed's stare was piercing and actually very authoritive, I then grabbed up my bag and turned to walk out the door. "Where are you going!?" Ed yelled at me sternly. "To do my experiment, in peace!" I said as I pulled on my jacket. Ed grabbed my arm and held it so tight it was beginning to hurt, "You are NOT leaving this house." I rolled my eyes, "Oh this song & dance again?" I pulled my arm out of his hold. "Yes THIS song & dance again, and notice you're also going to get yourself killed this time too!" He said, he then gave me a sarcastic 'Its amazing!' look. I then said, "Only this time, you're not going to stop me." I turned to leave, Ed dove for his shoes in hopes he wouldn't fall on his ass again. I slammed the door behind me as Ed finally got his second boot on.

Seeing me gone made Ed's heart sink, '_she really wasn't kidding'_ he thought. He stood back up and though that he wasn't kidding either, he would stop her. Edward ran out the door quickly, he had no time to waste, who knows what she was doing now.

Ed went running all over town asking around in search of me. The longer he couldn't find me, the more of a sinking feeling he got. He reached a cement abandoned building, maybe she's in here. He looked at the doorway and thought to himself, oh please be okay.

He went inside, the building was much larger that he thought. Thru the door was an ongoing hallway that seemed like a maze as Ed walked thru it. Ed finally reached a very large room, he slowly walked into it as he searched the room. He figured no one was there until his eyes fell on me. Ed gasped, "Raven..."

Edward charged at me at full speed, but he wouldn't stop me from going through with this. "Raven DON'T DO IT!!" He yelled, I clapped my hands together and put them to the ground. Edward was then pushed backwards into the wall by the large chunk of ground I transmuted. Out of the wall came thick chunks of stone that wrapped themselves around Ed's limbs, rendering him unable to move.

As I watched Ed struggle with all his strength, I felt sad, but I wasn't about to give up. I turned around to face the transmutation circle I had arranged with all the things I needed to test my theory. "Raven don't do it! It's too dangerous, you could get killed!" Ed pleaded to me as he struggled to get loose. I ignored him, his continued struggle just made me want him to give up more. "Listen to me dammit!" He yelled at me, I looked back at the struggling boy once again, he stopped struggling for a minute, noticing I was looking at him. I looked back at the ground, "I'm sorry…" I turned back to the transmutation circle, I heard Ed begin to struggle again, "NO DON'T DO IT!!!!" He screamed. Came down to my knees, clapped my hands together, and put them on the transmutation circle. "NOO!!! STOP DAMMIT!!!" He screamed through tears. Blue light grew in front of me, sparking and cracking until it turned into a huge explosion. I felt pain flush over my body until everything went black.

(Ed/3rd person POV)

Tears ran down Ed's face as he looked at the girl's limp body on the ground. "RAVEN!!!!" He screamed trying to get his hands free, all of the struggling caused blood to drip from his left wrist. A disturbing giggle broke out, Ed looked up to see Envy, Lust and Gluttony, standing in amusement of Raven's death. "Since she's dead, can I eat her?" Gluttony said gleefully. Envy shrugged "Well she is dead, what else would we do with the body?" Lust nodded at Gluttony, and Gluttony looked back at Raven's body. "GET AWAY FROM HER!!!!" Ed screamed. "Well what do you suggest Fullmetal pipsqueak, Hmm? You intend on keeping her body as a souvenir?" Ed was extremely insulted by this, "She's dead, just face it." He held up two fingers and said "That's two women you care deeply for dead." He smirked, Ed got angry "SHUT UP DAMMIT!!" Tears rushing down his face only to fall to the ground, Envy shook his head.

"I don't recall calling the water works, do you?" Lust asked Envy. "No, that's just the Fullmetal boy leaking, not the water pipes." This only worsened Ed's anger, but then his eyes widened when he saw Gluttony heading towards Raven's body. He tried breaking the stone that held him, using every ounce of strength in his body, until he got his right hand broken out. He then clapped his hands together and put them to the wall releasing him. He used alchemy to transmute his hand blade as he jumped off of the wall charging strait at Gluttony, screaming at the top of his lungs ready to kill him. Gluttony jumped away quickly before Ed landed on the ground. Hatred, tears, and sorrow filled his eyes as he stared at the homunculi so humored by this event. Ed turned to Raven's body, there were blackened areas from where dust from the explosion settled on her.

He knelt down next to her, gently scooped her up and held her close, she was definitely dead, but still he put his head to her chest to maybe hear a heart beat. He got nothing but a bunch of dirt on the side of his head. Tears streaked his face again, now what was Ed going to do? His true love was dead now, no matter how much he tried to run away from it, he couldn't escape, because his reminder was laying limp in his arms. He need's evidence to believe something, and all the evidence he would need was right there. "She's dead you know, she isn't coming back, and unless you want to repeat what happened with your mother, I wouldn't suggest trying to bring her back." Envy said. Ed cried harder now, he didn't want to believe it. He clenched his fists and cried out at the top of lungs in agony. He buried his face into Raven's lifeless chest, and wailed, feeling so useless that he couldn't stop her when he could. He wondered why he couldn't do anything right, he couldn't protect his mom, he couldn't protect Nina, he couldn't even protect his own brother when he needed help. He was full of memories of the past, hatred for himself, and agony for loosing another loved one.

End Chapter 12


	13. Chapter 13

After much searching, Sakura, Al, Roy and Riza finally found the two teen agers, but what they saw wasn't expected. They saw Ed, crying into a limp body that once belonged to a soul named Raven. "Raven?" Sakura said. The four came to Ed's side, not noticing three of the seven deadly sins standing there, whom decided to leave before Roy and Riza noticed. Keeping his head dipped, Ed sat up allowing his brother and the red haired girl to seen what had become of Raven. "Raven? Raven wake up!" Sakura said shaking Raven's body, no response. "C'mon, this isn't funny!" They all were silent, Roy looked away, Riza crouched down to Raven's side. "E-Ed, she isn't… She didn't…" Al stuttered. "Yeah, she did… She did what I had tried so hard to get her not to do." Ed said in a low voice.

Sakura tried to hold back balling, but she couldn't for long, now she buried her face in Raven's chest crying. Ed looked up at his little brother when he heard him begin to cry too. Ed didn't like seeing his brother cry, even if his brother couldn't really cry, that didn't change the presence of sorrow. Ed looked back at Raven's face, and instantly remembered how they first met. He remembered how drawn he was to her, but he couldn't understand why. This made him think about how much he was going to miss her. Ed put his hand on to Raven's neck, and propped her head up. One thing was for sure, she looked peaceful, that had to constitute for something, maybe it was her time. Suddenly Ed felt something pulse under his finger. He quickly looked back at Raven's face and he felt the pulse again… Then again… It was a heart beat, Ed's eyes widened, "It can't be…" He said. Sakura sat and wiped her eyes, "What can't be?" She asked in a depressed way. Ed pressed his head to Raven's chest, he felt her chest rise and fall, he heard her heart. She was alive.

"She's alive!!!" Ed shouted. "What?" Al exclaimed. All attention was drawn back to Raven. "B-But, it can't be!" said Riza. Ed sat back up and stared at Raven's face, and watched her eyes slowly open. She looked up at Ed, looking confused "Edward…?". He began to smile as tears began to fall down his face once again. "RAVEN!!" Sakura shouted. Raven looked over to Sakura and before she knew it Sakura had her arms around her. Raven looked around to see Riza happily crying too, Roy even shed a few tears.

Raven sat up and rubbed her head since it hurt a little bit, "What happened… And why are you guys all crying? Was I dead or something?" She said, scanning all of the familiar faces. She looked over at Ed, his face broke into a big grin. "Something along those lines…" He said. "But, I don't understand, if I was dead, I wouldn't have been able to come back to life just like that." Raven exclaimed. "I have a theory." Roy stated. We all looked at him, "There is a possibility that Raven's body went into shock and her heart stopped. Possibly caused by being hit by a large explosion, am I correct?" He smiled at Raven.

(Raven's POV)

Ed and I looked at each other, "I do remember a loud explosion before I went unconscious." I said. "It's a blessing that you're still alive, it's a good thing your heart started again by itself." Riza said, smiling warmly at me. I smiled too, then I looked at the ground then I said "Yeah, I suppose it was." Ed gently lifted my chin up, I looked at him and he smiled at me. I smiled back, then, without warning he threw his arms around me. I began to embrace him as well, while I felt tears from Edward dripping in to my shoulder.

We came out of embrace, "Just one thing" Ed said "Please don't scare the shit out of like that again." We both tried to keep a strait face, but it didn't last. Soon all of us were laughing. At this point I was completely convinced that I should have listened to Ed, I was being stubborn and hard headed about it all. But I've learned my lesson, what was the point of my experiment when I'll never know weather or not history will repeat itself because I won't be alive. All my life I've always known that I wouldn't have a very normal life, but I never thought it'd be this weird. What matters is I'm happy, I can't dwell on past events for the rest of my life. Whatever lies ahead, well, looks like I'm stuck again with no idea, but I don't mind, I have many people who care about me here. They are my family too now, its good to know that I won't be alone.

"Tears, laughter, anger, they are merely fragments of life. Just like us, nothing but fragments in an uncontrollable current."

-Raven Aspen

"All we are, are dust in the wind"

-[its from a song [I DON'T KNOW THE FREAKIN NAME

Fullmetal Alchemist

Unknown Alchemy

HAGAREN NO RENKINJUTSU

SHIRANAI OUGONJUTSU

Fullmetal Alchemist © Hiromu Arakawa, Square Enix, BONES, DENTSU

Licenced by FUNimation Productions

Unknown Alchemy (Shiranai Ougonjutsu) © Raven Aspen/Behrens, Raging Sugar Rose Productions

End Shiranai Ougonjutsu


End file.
